


Ultimate Shuffle

by systemerrin



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Different Mastermind (Dangan Ronpa), Gen, Talentswap
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-28
Updated: 2018-02-21
Packaged: 2019-02-23 06:59:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 31,280
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13184769
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/systemerrin/pseuds/systemerrin
Summary: It was with great alarm that Maki Harukawa startled awake from whatever the source of her unconsciousness had previously been. Immediately, before her mind even had a chance to process anything in her surroundings, her instincts seemed to scream out in anguish. Something wasn't right.In which no one's characters are as they should be. Roles, talents, and backstories rearranged. Was this a mistake...? Or was it  something planned.





	1. Waking Up

**Author's Note:**

> There won't be any real pairings in this (or at least I'm not planning on it), but you know. About the level of canon stuff happens, so think what you will I suppose.

It was with great alarm that Maki Harukawa startled awake from whatever the source of her unconsciousness had previously been. Immediately, before her mind even had a chance to process anything in her surroundings, her instincts seemed to scream out in anguish. Something wasn’t right. She wasn’t in any physical pain, and yet her mind and body seemed to very suddenly be overwhelmed by an enormous sense of wrongness that shot though her like a jolt of electricity. It coursed through her before seeming to pass just as suddenly as it had arrived, leaving behind only a vague sense of discomfort and a greater feeling of disorientation. Her skin felt too tight and her mind was clouded. If she could just stop the world from spinning…

Still dazed, she finally managed to let her brain process what she was seeing. If her sense of orientation and gravity could be trusted right now, it seemed as if she was on the ground and staring at a high ceiling. In her periphery, she could almost make out something looming above her. With a turn of her head to the side, she managed to identify it as a bookcase. A further scan of her area immediate area let her see that it wasn’t the only one, and that there were in fact nearly a dozen bookcases in her field of view alone, along with various mounds of book haphazardly scattered about, and more still piled on top of the bookcases.

She sat up and took a measured breath, trying to keep her heartbeat from speeding up and nearly coughed. She slowly got to her feet, continuing to glance around herself carefully as she did so. The ground she had been laying on was bare, seeming to be simple concrete with nothing to cover it other than the substantial layer of dust that she could clearly see. She brushed some off of her skirt. She couldn’t identify any evidence that this room had been disturbed at all for years, possibly decades, which was raising some warning flags. She had no idea where she was or how she’d gotten there. It seemed to be some sort of study or library but-

Before she could finish her thought, the one of the set of double doors in the room swung open. Maki turned to spy a dark haired boy hesitantly glance into the room from the hallway beyond it, followed by another person stepping partially into view behind him.

“A library…” The first boy noted more to himself than to his companion. His yellow-grey eyes scanned the room briefly before widening slightly as they came across Maki herself. “Ah, there’s someone else here too.”

The boy was dressed in a black V-neck sweater over a plain white button up, black slacks, and dress shoes. At first glance Maki had thought his neatly parted hair to be black as well, but upon closer inspection she could tell that it was actually a navy blue. He hesitated a moment before stepping into the room and to the side, allowing the other person to step in as well after him.

Where as the first boy had seemed a bit meek and slightly plain, the second to enter the room appeared more sure of himself and distinguished. Black gloves, a crisp mid-length dark blue trench coat reached his knees, and a blue and white striped tie was just barely visible above where the coat closed at the top. His hair was a light green, matching his searching eyes. Maki felt vaguely uncomfortable under his gaze as it quickly swept over her.

“So you’re an Ultimate student too, right?” The boy in black asked. The question surprised Maki, although she doesn’t know what she was expecting. It certainly wasn’t her status as an Ultimate to be brought up so casually by an absolute stranger. She narrowed her eyes slightly. The inclusion of the word ‘too’...

“Yeah, that’s right.” 

The conversation stalls and the boy in black seems at a loss for what to say after how short her answer was, seeming to have expected more. He waits a few seconds, and silence treads into an awkward length before he starts back up by offering his own introduction. “I’m Shuichi Saihara, the Ultimate Pianist, by the way.” 

Maki glances down to the hem of his sweater, now noticing that the design there was actually a collection of music notes on a staff. Fitting.

He turns to look at the other occupant of the room, and the green haired boy glances at him before turning back to Maki and speaking with a casual, almost bored tone, like he’s been doing this a lot recently. “And my name is Rantaro Amami. Ultimate Detective.”

A pianist and a detective, huh? So the two of them were both ultimate students as well. That certainly implied that they were in the same situation as she was, but she still had no way of knowing. And if they had given her their identities to her, it was all but pointless to withhold hers. If one or both of them were somehow the ones responsible for her situation, it was unlikely that they had kidnapped her without knowing who she was anyways. If she could find out what was going on from them perhaps… “Maki Harukawa. Ultimate Astronaut.”

“An Astronaut, huh? That’s pretty interesting for a teenager,” Shuichi smiled patiently, as if to thank her for finally cooperating. “So you’ve been to space?”

“Not yet. I’m still in training for that, actually.” She felt her shoulders relax slightly and only just now realized how tense they had been ever since waking up.

“I wasn’t aware of any astronaut training programs letting teenagers in,” Rantaro cut in, arms crossed. It didn’t sound skeptical, but she could tell that even though it wasn’t a question he was trying to prompt her to prove herself more. Maki mentally frowned, while trying to keep the expression off of her face. She didn’t appreciate it, but being more social was one of the things she was supposed to be working on…

“I was something of a special case I guess. You’re right that they don’t normally let in teenagers.” There, that was enough information to give without getting too specific. Shuichi seemed satisfied with her and nodded, but Rantaro’s arms remained crossed with his face blank. A little more, then. “I probably won’t be allowed to actually go into space until I’m legally an adult anyways. But I’m the top of my training class in all areas.”

“That’s pretty impressive,” Shuichi chuckled. “I’m uh, not good for much else than playing piano. And even then I…”

“Shuichi, stop doubting yourself,” Rantaro stopped him almost tiredly, although he’d had this same conversation with the other boy multiple times already. Shuichi seemed a bit sheepish as he looked away, and his hand momentarily moved up as if to grab something by his face but found nothing. A habit from wearing glasses? A hat? Whatever. It was time she got some useful information out of them.

“How do you two know each other? And where are we?” She asked, looking between the two of them for an answer.

“Ah well, we don’t really know each other I suppose,” Shuichi was the one to pick up her questioning. He seemed oddly self-conscious of this. “I was just tagging along since we both need to investigate the same things and meet the same people, right? We, uh, just happened to wake up in the same room. And as for where we are, uhhh...”

“It’s called the Ultimate Academy for Gifted Juveniles, apparently,” Rantaro offered. 

Well that was interesting. What were the odds that three Ultimates were in the same predicament? It had to have been planned. And but he had also said… “Meet the same people? Are there others here too?”

“Um, yeah. Have you not met anyone else yet? We were told there were 16 total Ultimates around, ah, campus I guess. As for where this academy is and why we’re here, no one we’ve met yet has any idea either.” 

Nothing about this situation felt right, but at least it seemed like she wasn’t the only one in the dark as to what was going on. Maki supposed she would have to some investigating of her own to arrive at any answers, then. Not that she could likely find anything that the Ultimate Detective couldn’t. “Who told you there were 16 of us?” 

“The Monokubs did,” Shuichi replied. Maki only raised an eyebrow. “You know. The uh, colorful talking bear robots?”

When Maki only stared at him he through his hands up nervously in a placating gesture. “I, er, know it sounds hard to believe, but that’s really what they were. I’m assuming the people who brought us here probably built them or something.”

“He’s telling the truth,” Rantaro corroborated. “Whatever they are, they're almost certainly part of whatever is responsible for us being here. At the moment I’m unsure as to whether they’re AIs, or if someone’s controlling them.”

Maki nodded uncertainly. This entire situation was getting stranger by the second. She hadn’t even woken up 10 minutes ago, and already new suspicious mysteries were arising. She eyed her surroundings briefly. She hadn’t even left this room, and yet -

“Ah you just woke up here, right? I’m sure the amount of mysteries will only grow once you leave. But, don’t let that stop you from getting some answers for yourself,” Rantaro smirked, beginning to walk away from her and towards a collection of bookcases, apparently done with the conversation. 

Maki startled slightly. Well, he was a detective… An ultimate one in fact. “Ah, yes actually. And I guess I’ll do that then.” 

Shuichi looked between them briefly before stating that he would be staying in the library a bit longer with Rantaro.

“To help investigate!” He’d sworn, a bit too quickly. 

Sure.

And with that, Maki left the library in search of answers and the other Ultimates. 2 down, 3 including herself, and 13 others to go, apparently. Why were so many of the high schoolers chosen by the Ultimate Initiative here?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello friends! This is going to be my first fanfic since I was like ten and didn't understand story writing at all. So! I've always loved talent swaps for danganronpa, and I've always loved coming up with new plots and murders, so here we are! Let me know what you think so I can improve my writing~! Future chapters will be posted likely every few days, and will probably all be slightly or significantly longer than this first one. So for now here's just a taste of what I have in store! Feel free to try and guess character roles and talents or what happens in the comments~!


	2. Introductions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let's get to the bottom of this mystery, shall we?

Maki’s body felt stiff when she walked, and more than a little sore. She hadn’t noticed it while standing in the library, but now that she was moving around there was a definite ache in her muscles that didn’t have a clear source. While she could chalk it up to having been lying on the floor when she woke up, the prominence would probably mean that she had been there for quite awhile. 

Now that she thought about it actually, there wasn’t any indication of how she had gotten there in the first place. When she’d gotten up, she could see the outline of where she’d been lying in the dust but no evidence of having been dragged there. That would have made a trail, right? So had she been carried by someone? Had she _walked_ in, and then forgotten about it? She definitely couldn’t remember what had been going on at all directly before she’d woken up here or how she’d passed out in the first place. But wouldn’t footsteps also show up in there? Maybe. She hadn’t thought to check actually. Maybe she could ask Rantaro about it later. _Also_ -

There was something in her pocket. She hadn’t realized it at first, but she could feel something solid but light. She slipped it out the pocket of her jacket and ran her eyes over it. It was some sort of small tablet computer with a split black and white coloring on the backing. Maki pressed the button on it and turned it on. 

From what she could tell, it had multiple tabs that would likely hold different functions, but some of them were greyed out and wouldn’t open. In the one that would, small portraits of herself, Rantaro, and Shuichi were displayed with their names and basic information next to 13 other blank spots. Presumably, these would be filled in when she met the others. Unable to find any other secrets, she slipped it back into her pocket for the time being. She’d have to look back at it later. She looked back up at her surroundings.

The hallway outside the library was more than a little creepy and practically underdeveloped. There was another door by the sliding entrance to the library she had used, but it refused to slide open more than a crack when she had tried. Interesting. The room beyond it was dark, so even peering in through the crack was all but useless. 

Moving on, near what she took to be the other library entrance she’d seen, there was a stairwell clearly visible going only up. Weird. Considering that the only other door in this area seemed to lead into another room, perhaps whatever the darkened room was, it was likely that this wasn’t the first floor. Instead, when combined with the undeveloped feel, it was more likely that they were in some sort of basement. That was more than a little odd, however. A library in the basement? That seemed like a poor design choice, for many reasons. 

Briefly, Maki considered that perhaps this was the first floor and that the lack of doors had more to do with the building being some sort of bunker, or just lacking exits at all. No use panicking about that now. One issue at a time. 

The final door in this floor actually opened, which surprised her slightly. The room beyond was brightly lit as well. It looked like some sort of run down… game room. Weird again. She had nearly missed seeing him at first glance, but there was one other person in the room who was currently checking on some of the amenities, who was dressed in dark clothing. He was short, abnormally so, but his demeanor clearly showed that he was definitely not a child. That much she could tell already, despite not yet seeing his face. 

He hadn’t turned around when Maki had opened the door to the room, instead either not noticing Maki’s presence or simply ignoring it. Unsure of how to go about approaching this person, she instead opted to walk back to the other door she spied at the end of the room. 

Just as she was about to try opening it, a deep voice sounded out, surprising her. “That door’s locked. I’ve already tried it.”

Maki glanced back to where the voice had sounded from, seeing only the mysterious short statured stranger. She had neither expected him to speak nor to have such a low octave. 

He offered no other commentary. In fact, he hadn’t even glanced in her direction. She turned back to the door and pulled on it anyways. It rattled but didn’t budge. Locked.

“Heh, good on you to not just take my word for it I suppose,” the stranger chuckled, finally turning to face her. “You’re another Ultimate, I’d take it?”

She nodded to him, walking a few steps in his direction. She’d take his attention as permission for a conversation. “I am. My name is Maki Harukawa. The Ultimate Astronaut. And you are?”

“I see you don’t waste any time with pleasantries, eh? I suppose I’ll humor you then. The name’s Ryoma Hoshi,” he said with vague interest. He hesitated a moment before continuing, and Maki waited patiently. “And I suppose my talent is… Well. I’m the Ultimate Survivor.” 

Ultimate Survivor, huh? That was certainly an odd title. Wilderness survival, perhaps? Seeking answers, she decided to ask him while being careful to not sound skeptical or judgmental. “What sort of talent is that?”

He shrugged and reached up to tug on his horned beanie. “M’just good at surviving dangerous situations, I guess.”

That sure wasn’t a very clear answer. But it seemed that Ryoma didn’t want to talk about it in any more detail than that, so she let it drop. “So do you have any idea why we’re here?”

“Nope,” he popped the ‘p’ slightly. “Doubt it’s for anything pleasant, though. Still, beats prison I guess.”

_Prison?_ Seriously? “Were you in prison before this, Ryoma?”

“Yeah, I was,” he mumbled slightly. “Wasn’t really my fault but… you’d be right not to trust me, I guess.”

“I wouldn’t say I distrust you because of that,” she started, unsure of how to phrase how she felt. Still, an effort could be made. “It’s more like, it’s more important to weigh someone’s current actions than to think you know everything about them from a piece of their past. You’ll never know all of the situation or their reasons.”

He raised an eyebrow and searched her face. “You speaking from experience?”

When she didn’t answer after a few seconds, he laughed lowly but honestly.

“Hey don’t worry, I’m not the type to pry either. I’ll let you know if I figure anything out about our situation. See ya around.” He waved and made his way to the exit, opening the door and leaving through it. It closed behind him with a dull thud. 

Maki stood there dumbly for a few moments before shaking her head and walking towards the exit herself. There didn’t seem to be anything of use in this room. Just a bunch of broken games and... roots, weirdly. There had been a few in the library as well. Whatever this building was, it definitely looked to be poorly kept and abandoned for a significant amount of time.

Maki couldn’t see where Ryoma had gone. It had to have been either upstairs or to the library where Shuichi and Rantaro either were or had just left themselves. No matter. She climbed the stairs. It was actually a lot brighter than she figured it would be up here. There were actual windows here, although they weren’t clear and had both bars and red barbed wire covering them. 

“Ah, excuse me!”

A feminine voice shouted from further down the hallways, and Maki turned to face her. A blond girl in pastel pink hurried towards her. From the look of her, it wasn’t terribly hard to guess what type her talent would be. She was definitely _something_ sporty. Her light hair was pulled into a high ponytail that bobbed slightly as she quickly jogged over. 

“Heya!” she greeted now that she was standing in front of Maki, apparently not out of breath at all. “I saw you standing over here and decided that I should come introduce myself! I’ve been looking for other people here to say hi to so…”

How chatty.

“Ah let me guess! You’re… hmmm… An Ultimate… Hair Stylist? No, wait! I’m guessing… Receptionist? Or maybe something academic? Tutor? _Teacher?_ ”

“Uh, no,” Maki replied awkwardly. _Am I really dressed that formally?_ “I’m the Ultimate Astronaut. Maki Harukawa.”

The girl hummed, smiling. “Well I was almost right! Ah, sort of? Haha, I’ve been trying to guess the Ultimates of everyone I’ve come across. I haven’t gotten very many right... Oh! Do you want to guess what my talent is before I tell you?”

“Erm. That’s ok you can just-“

“Aw, go on! Guess!” So it wasn’t a choice after all it appeared.

“I’m guessing you’re an athlete?” The headband certainly implied that. Maki glanced at her light pink top. There looked to be some sort of racket or paddle emblem on the pocket of it so she’d have to guess, “Um. Tennis?”

_That or ping pong, probably. What other sports use those types of things again?_

The girl beamed happily while nodding eagerly and spun in place before curtsying, making her patterned skirt fan out around her slightly. Ah, it was probably supposed to look like a tennis net then. “Yup, you got it right! My name is Kaede Akamatsu, the Ultimate Tennis Pro!”

Wait; now that she thought about it, Maki was decently sure she’d heard of her before. “You’ve won the junior nationals of tennis six years running now, right?”

Kaede’s eyes lit up and she looked down at Maki, surprised. Maki herself glanced down and noted that Kaede was actually standing on the balls of her feet now, her heels lifting off the ground. She was very clearly excited. “You know who I am? Are you into tennis? A fan? Or maybe a player?”

Maki resisted the urge to take a step back from her. _This is how normal socializing works_ she reminded herself. _I can do this._ “No, sorry. I’m not that into sports. Just some of the, ah, kids I used to be around were fans of yours I suppose. I’ve heard them mention you before.”

Kaede pouted playfully before perking back up almost instantly. “Well, they have good taste! If you ever want to get into tennis, just let me know! I could totally teach you the basics!”

Maki somewhat doubted that she would take her up on that, but she nodded anyway.

“Well anyways, I got like, 8 more people to meet after you! So I guess I’ll get going then? Have you checked out the basement yet? Anyone there?” 

“I don’t know if they’re still there but, there were the uh…” Right she wanted to guess talents. “Their names were Ryoma, Shuichi, and Rantaro? I don’t know if you’ve met any of them yet. They also may have left.”

“Ah I’m pretty sure I haven’t met them! I know you already met them, but wanna come with me?” she asked, large eyes sparkling with the question. Uhhh…

“I’d really rather start exploring this place, so…” She felt a bit bad turning her down, but she wanted to start finding out what was going on here. Backtracking wouldn’t help at the moment.

To her surprise, Kaede didn’t seem too put off by it. She smiled brightly again. “No worries, just figured I’d ask. I’ll talk to you later!”

Maki tried to open her mouth so she could give a goodbye of her own, but before she could the other girl had already sprinted down the stairs, leaving her in the hallway alone. Alright then. There was a door to what was probably a classroom given the sign near where she was standing, but upon opening it she found no one inside. A quick search of the room didn’t uncover anything, not even in the peculiarly placed lockers. Of note was the odd electronic blackboard, but she couldn’t find any way to change what was displayed there. Undeterred, she continued her journey. 

The hallway was overgrown with tall grass and other plants in places. As she came across a wide-open area that was apparently caged off, she could spy someone on the other side of it also curiously looking at the bars. The two of them locked eyes briefly, silently wondering what the deal with the area being enclosed was. The other girl then glanced to the side, and began walking. Maki followed the direction of her gaze a bit, now noticing a route around the caged area with what looked like a few dining booths.

“Um, hi,” the other girl started nervously once they met, her blue eyes meeting Maki’s shyly from behind her half framed glasses. “I saw you on the other side, so I figured we could introduce ourselves. Um. Maybe?”

She seemed pretty meek, wringing her hands together shyly in front of her. Wanting to help reassure her, Maki tried to smile gently. She wasn’t sure if she quite managed the expression she was going for. “My name’s Maki Harukawa. I’m the Ultimate Astronaut. Who are you?”

“I-I’m ah, the Ultimate Inventor,” she stuttered, shuffling slightly but maintaining eye contact. “Sorry, heheh, it’s just been awhile since I’ve had to interact with anyone outside my family. And even then I um… I was uh, actually doing my own thing for school just before… whatever this is happened.”

She ran a hand through her short hair sheepishly. So she wasn’t scared of social interaction, just out of practice then? Well whatever. She appeared to have finished talking already, just eyeing Maki for a cue of what to say next. 

“So what’s your name, then?” Maki tried. The girl looked surprised, going wide-eyed. 

“Oh my gosh I can’t believe I forgot to say my name, I’m so sorry!” She squeaked out. “My name is Tsumugi! Tsumugi Shirogane ahah… I doubt you’ll remember the name of anyone as plain as me but…”

Maki nodded along with her, but frowned at that last comment. “I’ve got an above average memory. I’ll remember it.”

“Erm, thank you…” Tsumugi looked like she hadn’t expected Maki’s response to be so blunt. Whoops? Oh well. “So um. What’s the deal with this area being blocked? It looks like the entrance hall, maybe. Are we trapped in here after all?”

Maki considered this. That did seem likely, but the bars didn’t look all that effective of keeping a group of teenagers with Ultimate talents confined. Surely they could find some way past them? The same went for the windows. It really shouldn’t be impossible to find something in this building to use. The answer Maki settled with giving was, “Maybe.”

Tsumugi didn’t respond. She looked like she was thinking hard about something, but from what Maki could tell from her expression, it wasn’t something too upsetting to her. Seemed like a good place to end off then. “Well, it was nice meeting you, Tsumugi.”

The other girl just hmm’d in response, a distant look on her face. Maki didn’t feel too bad leaving her standing there alone. Someone was sure to happen by sooner or later. In fact, it was probably only a matter of time before Kaede would come bounding back upstairs. Maki let Tsumugi be and continued on. There was a lot more for her to investigate, after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's three more characters met now~! Introductions and prologue things might be a bit slow going, but hopefully that's just from my perspective because I'm having to write them all haha. As much as I'd like to just get into the meat of the story, it's definitely important to go over everyone's new talents and set all my future plots up. I'm trying not to make them too repetitive!
> 
> Anyways, lemme know what you think of the talents and characters! I think I should be about done with introductions in 2-3 more chapters after this depending on how long I make them. See if you can guess what I have in store mwahaha~!


	3. More Introductions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Time for some interesting choices of talents

At the other end of the blocked entrance area was a stairwell going upwards and in addition to that a collection of three rooms. The first that Maki tried was locked, the sign above it only indicating what it was a school store. The next room was a dining hall, and upon opening it Maki was greeted with a trio of people within.

Two of them had been talking to each other, but all three of them turned to look at when she opened the door and stepped inside. 

“Alright, another girl! And we didn’t even have to go looking!” A girl wearing tailcoats and a sort of wide top hat cheered.

“Nyahahaha~! Atua was sure to guide her here~!” A darker skinned girl with pure white hair added.

“Gonta wasn’t aware that Angie’s god had that kind of ability!” A large man wearing a suit exclaimed. 

Maki blinked at them. Well, if there were three people in one place, then that did make introductions potentially easier. She was starting to see why Rantaro had seemed so tired when introducing himself, so it would be convenient to get three done at once. Before she could get a word in edgewise, however, the girl in the hat bounded up to her and took her hand, her pseudo-braids swinging behind her.

“Ignore them, and keep your eyes on me!” The girl declared, flashing a grin, her green eyes full of passion. “My name is Tenko Chabashira, Ultimate Magician!”

Suddenly, her serious demeanor dissolved and she let go of Maki’s hand. She squealed happily, “Ah I sounded so cool just then!”

“…?” Maki wasn’t sure how to respond to that. This girl was certainly something. It wasn’t that hard to guess from her clothes that she was a magician, especially with the top hat. Still, even considering that fact, her fashion choice was still… odd, to say the least. There was a lime green ribbon fastened around the hat, which itself had a black and silver pattern all over it. The tailcoat jacket and the short layered skirt she had on were black as well, but the loose bow she wore on the white undershirt beneath it was a bright purple. In addition, her knee-high socks had both the lime green and purple ribbon bows. A very strange color combination.

Tenko took a few quick breaths to calm down, and then adopted her in-control attitude again. “Don’t worry, with the power of magic, we’ll be sure to escape this place!” 

“Oooooh~ How mysterious!” The girl behind her cooed, bringing her hands together. “With both your magic and the power of Atua, there’s nothing we can’t accomplish!”

Tenko stepped back while appearing pleased, confused, flustered, and annoyed by her statement all at the same time.

Speaking of fashion senses… The white-haired girl (whose name was apparently Angie, if the boy in the room had been correct) was another interesting one. She had on what appeared to be a somewhat form-fitting long-sleeved jumpsuit of some kind, in a dark green. There were various sections of it that had stylized cutouts, including slits over her shoulders and along her thighs. The bottom of it ended halfway through her lower legs, leaving a small patch of skin before her white shoes. Maki couldn’t come up with what in the world she was supposed to be an Ultimate of just by looking. 

Sensing Maki’s eyes on her, the smaller girl smiled at her and tilted her entire body to the side with her hands now behind her back. “Oh, is the stranger wondering who I am?”

Maki finally composed herself enough to formulate a response. “Yes… Who are you, then?”

“My name is Angie Yonaga, the Ultimate Aikido Master~!” Angie seemed to bounce as she introduced herself. Maki blinked. 

“Huh. I wouldn’t have expected a girl so small to have a talent like that,” she muttered to herself.

Angie continued to smile sweetly, but she leaned in as if sharing a forbidden truth of the world. “Oh? Is it that hard to believe? Looks can be deceiving, you know.” A chill went down Maki’s spine.

“R-right.” She stammered. “Sorry. I didn’t mean anything by it.”

In an instant, Angie stood back up, the somewhat terrifying aura she had had evaporating, leaving only the carefree smile behind. “Good, good~! Atua forgives you~!”

Ah right. She had said that word before too. It had been called her god, but Maki had never heard of it before. “What’s this Atua you’re talking about? What religion is it?”

“Angie follows the path of Atua!” Angie stated, as if this answered anything. “He is the god of my island, and is the creator of all things! He is the force that guides my Heavenly Aikido to protect me, and all who practice under me~!”

Well that sounded interesting. She was from an island where everyone worshipped this “Atua” as their god? And moreover, Angie was the one teaching others. Maki made a note to keep an eye on her when she could. For now she turned to look back at Tenko, who had just recomposed herself, and the third person, who hadn’t spoken up again since the beginning. He was waiting politely for them to finish. Ah, that’s right, she hadn’t gotten a chance to say her own name and talent. 

“My name is Maki Harukawa,” she addressed everyone, glancing between them all. It really was tiring having to say her own name so much. “I’m the Ultimate Astronaut.”

Tenko looked impressed. “Oh wow! That’s an awesome talent! I mean, really just being an astronaut at all would be, right? But you’re an Ultimate one!” 

“Atua agrees,” Angie nodded. “You are destined to explore His divine realm.”

“Um, thank you…” It was always embarrassing to hear praise like that. She could also see how the religious part had made Tenko a bit uncomfortable before.

“Yeah, it’s obvious that girls would have the best talents! Er…” Tenko turned awkwardly, seeming to only just remember that there was actually a boy in the room. He had been near completely silent since his comments in the beginning after all.

He was big; incredibly so. He was more than a foot taller than Maki was, but also nearly twice as wide. Even through his clothes, Maki could tell how muscular he was. He wore a crisp white suit with black accents, but his long green hair flowed freely behind his shoulders. Maki’s mind immediately jumped to “bodyguard” as a possible talent for him to have, but of course, she couldn’t be sure until he shared. 

It seemed that the other two girls in the room were still wondering the same thing.

“What was Gonta’s talent again?” Angie wondered aloud, placing her hands on her cheeks in a mock gasp.

“I don’t think he ever told us?” Tenko’s statement had turned more into a question there at the end. She looked slightly nervous and decided to ask Gonta directly. “Did you ever say what your talent was, Gonta?”

“Sorry for not saying before,” was the boy apparently named Gonta’s embarrassed response. His voice was surprisingly light and eloquent sounding for his size. “Gonta’s talent isn’t amazing like other’s.”

“I’m sure it’s fine!” Tenko declared. “Go ahead and say it!”

“Yes yes! Tell us~!” Angie chirped.

Interested, Maki nodded as well. 

Gonta smiled shyly and rubbed the back of his head humbly. “Oh, Gonta’s talent is just Ultimate Supreme Leader.”

The room went silent for a few beats. 

“You’re kidding, right?” Tenko broke the silence, surprise clear on her face. She chuckled nervously. “There’s no way that’s a real talent.”

“No, Gonta is telling the truth,” was his earnest response. “Gonta really is the Ultimate Supreme Leader.”

Tenko looked a little pale. “W-what does that mean exactly?”

It certainly was surprising. Even having a title like Ultimate Leader would be surprising, but _Supreme_ Leader? That sounded more than a little a little ominous. It was clearly implying something more along the lines of dictator than any sort of- 

“Let’s drop that topic for now,” Gonta spoke a little nervously, adjusting the thin-framed glasses resting on his face. 

The topic was dropped.

“So…” Tenko trailed off. “This room.”

“There’s a proper dining hall here it looks like. And a functioning kitchen attached to it!” Angie picked up, gesturing to where she was talking about.

Maki glanced to where Angie was enthusiastically pointing. There was an archway leading into another room. Next to it was also a door that looked like it might lead to an outside area. 

“Is that…?”

“Gonta believes that door is locked. Tried it when first came into the room,” Gonta supplied. 

Maki frowned. Again, it probably wouldn’t be impossible to break through it, but it was still keeping them locked in for the moment. What was the objective here? Were they being held for ransom? If that was the case, why bother letting them move around? After engaging in some more small talk with the others in the room, Maki set out again.

The last door in this section of the hallway was labeled “Warehouse.” It stood to reason that that would be what was inside, but Maki could hardly believe the sheer size of it when she opened the door. The shelves towered above her, filled with every nearly every practical amenity imaginable plus more. Some of the things closest to the entrance looked like they were track and field equipment, like something you might see in a supply room for gym classes in a normal school. 

_Are we really just expected to live here normally?_ Just because she didn’t remember anything didn’t necessarily mean that no one else been. No one so far had indicated that they did remember but… She shook her head. More info. 

There were some noises that sounded a bit like voices coming from further into the warehouse. Maki strolled back through the aisles, growing closer to the sound until she could start to make out some of the words being said.

“- What the hell - wearing? Are - trying to look like a fuckin’ -, or is that really just the kind of thing you - goddamn day?” A girl with an accusatory tone was talking. Pieces of a conversation slipped through the racks, getting louder and clearer the closer she got. 

“ _Excuse me??_ ” Came an indignant squawk. “Where did - from? And should you really – one judging me? You’re -!”

Having pinpointed the row it was coming from Maki rounded the corner to find-

“Oh no, you do not get to play that card. I’m not the one casually cosplaying as a fucking half-ass robot here.”

“ _I told you, I’m not a cosplayer!_ ” A white-haired boy wearing a plain black captain’s hat and an orderly light blue uniform was arguing with a blond girl wearing a school girl outfit that would have been almost normal if it weren’t for the fact that the button-up shirt was a bit short on her, being turned into a sort of crop-top. 

“Then what’s-“ The girl stopped mid-sentence as Maki came into her field of view. “What the fuck do you want, bitch?”

Maki was taken aback a bit at the sudden hostility this girl was directing at her. She glanced between her and the boy, who looked a torn between being apologetic that she was now a part of the situation and pleading for her to help him. Actually, though, now that she got a good look at his face…

“ _Are_ you a robot?” She wondered out loud. The shapes of his eyes were more perfectly round than a normal person’s, and there were lines running down his face from them. She could also see what may have been a dark metal or plastic peeking out above where his uniform collar covered on his neck. 

“H-hey! Don’t fuckin’ ignore m-,“ the rude girl sputtered.

“Yes! I am!” The boy smiled, apparently pleased to have someone to talk to who wasn’t the other girl. “But that’s neither here nor there!”

“Listen, don’t just ignor-,“ The girl deflated slightly, slumping down and bringing in her trembling shoulders almost timidly.

“My name is K1-B0! But please, address me as Keebo,” he continued confidently, apparently already over whatever squabble he had been having with the blond girl. Quickly as to not be interrupted by whatever the girl had been undoubtedly been about to say, he spoke again, his voice filled with pride. “And although I may be a robot, that has absolutely nothing to do with my talent! I was chosen by the Ultimate Initiative as the Ultimate Anthropologist, an expert at the development of human civilization and cultures.”

It was somewhat difficult to focus on his talent when the fact that he was an actual living (did he count as living?) robot was also just disclosed to her.

“I was created by Professor Idabashi, the leader in the field of robotics. I was his masterpiece, seeing as I am a sentient and human robot. Of course I was amazing with just that, but I managed to grow my AI past his-“

The blond girl had obviously decided that she was done being ignored and had gathered her explosive personality back into place. She crossed her arms and hunched forward, interrupting Keebo in his exposition dump. “Like hell you are! First off, there’s no goddamn way you’re an actual robot! And second, there’s no way an otaku fuck like you could really have a fancy sounding talent like that!”

Maki got the feeling that this girl wasn’t exactly sure what anthropology was.

The boy… robot? The robot boy sighed with resignation and muttered something to himself before straightening back up. “As a response to your first accusation, for the last time, yes, I _am_ an actual robot. To the second, as I’ve stated previously, should you really be saying that in the first place considering your own talent, Miu?”

“Look,” ‘Miu’ bristled defensively. “Just because I’m the fucking Ultimate Cosplayer doesn’t mean I’m into that kind of nerdy shit!” 

Maki had had just about enough of this. “So you’re the Ultimate Cosplayer then?” she asked wearily. Maki had a feeling that as long as Miu was here she wasn’t going to be able to gather any relevant information to their situation.

“I sure as fuck am! Miu Iruma, cosplayer extraordinaire and total fuckin’ hottie, if I do say so myself!” She boasted confidently. “Unlike your flat-chested virgin ass!”

She was dressed surprisingly normal for what Maki had imagined a top-tier cosplayer to be like, although in actuality she supposed she’d never really thought about it at all. The grey pleated skirt and necktie were very simplistic, and her short sleeve white button-up was the definition of standard, barring, of course, the fact that it ended a bit prematurely and showed an inch or two of her midriff. Her hair, while being a somewhat striking rust blond color, was pulled into relatively normal loose braided pigtails, though they were loose to the point of almost not being able to be called such. 

She didn’t seem like she was going for anything too out there with it, and Maki suspected that it was probably just her normal school uniform. She didn’t look to be trying to wear it provocatively either, as it was buttoned neatly all the way to her collar. Had she been taken here wearing something she wouldn’t usually? It just seemed bizarrely at odds with what she was saying to Maki.

What she had been thinking must have shown on her face, because Miu suddenly shrunk and began twirling a piece of hair with her finger as she glanced to the side, pointedly away from the two of them. It seemed that she couldn’t decide whether to be embarrassed or seductive when she next spoke. “I may not look like much _now_ , but that’s just because it’s only my first form or whatever. You can’t look like a sex goddess _all_ the time…”

Miu blinked, seeming to have just realized what she had said. She turned back to Maki. “Er… I mean, obviously it would be possible for ME, but you know. Personal preference. I get a fuckton of dweebs jizzing their pants over me all the goddamn time, it gets _tiring_ ya know?”

“…Sure,” Maki really didn’t want to picture that.

Keebo changed the subject, seeming unfazed. “Regardless, it is pertinent that we discover the circumstances that surround our being brought here. It is quite curious that we’ve been supplied with such a spacious and well-stocked warehouse such as this.”

“I thought so as well,” said Maki. “It’s definitely abnormal for a school to have this much space for storage.” Had this been a facility with a separate use before being modified? Had it been turned into a school then? The problem with that theory was that the academy was so overgrown with plants. If it had been modified, it had to have been a long time ago. The reverse of that theory was that perhaps it was an old school that was modified to include this warehouse.

“Moreover, all of the supplies stocked here, or at least all that I managed to check before being interrupted,” Keebo shot a pouting Miu a surprisingly curious look, “seem to be in functioning shape despite the amount of dust in other areas of the warehouse. It’s possible that it was stocked more recently.”

She really didn’t like the implications of that. Regardless of if modifications had been made or not, where in the world would a facility like this _be_? How had something as spacious and technologically relevant been abandoned for so long? 

“What makes you say that?” Maki inspected some of the nearby shelves as well. She could still spot some dust on the objects.

“Well while there is some dust,” he started, picking up on what she was looking at. “It’s actually a lot lighter in quantity than it should be, going by what the overgrowth in the hallway would suggest. And a lot of it seems to have simply fallen from above as well.”

He punctuated his comment by nudging a shelf with a gloved hand. A small amount of dust rained down, landing on the objects placed on it. Huh.

There were certainly a lot of mysteries regarding this academy.

“And of course the biggest question was still why we’re here,” she decided to voice aloud. 

“Fuck if I know.” Ah, right. Miu. She shivered and moaned breathily as she spoke. “Jesus, I need something to take the stress off…” 

“I regret to inform that I haven’t any idea either,” was Keebo’s far more appreciated response.

Maki gave a soft hum. At least she felt some sense of productivity from this conversation by the end of it. She wasn’t sure what these new puzzle pieces _meant_ but it was at least a good start. She thanked Keebo for his observations, eliciting a “no problem” from him and a grumbled curse from Miu. Keebo stated that he would be checking the dining hall next, and Miu said she would be staying to search for “meds” in the warehouse. Maki left the warehouse and continued on, back the way she had come.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lotsa people met this time! Should be only one more introduction chapter (unless it starts getting long and I split it into two)! There's just 5 more people left to meet now~! 
> 
> From here guessing the remaining character's talents should be really interesting if you've been keeping track of what _should_ be left lol. Or maybe that's just me, but _I'm_ certainly excited to continue writing. Either way, tell me what you think of my choices and try to guess what I have planned~!


	4. The Great Outdoors

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Decided to split the chapter after all!

There were two more places that Maki knew she still needed to investigate. There was the gated area back by the booth area she had met Tsumugi by on the outskirts of the entrance hall, and there was the staircase to what she imagined would be the second floor. Both were important to investigate, but seeing as the stairs were closer to her current location, she decided to check that area first. 

It would definitely be an important place to investigate. Another entire floor waited there to be explored, after all, so it only made sense that she would try finding every possible piece of information about this place, and additionally meet any other students that happened to be there. Her walk, however, was interrupted as she realized what she was seeing in front of her. 

Part of the gate blocking off the entrance to the academy was gone. 

She quickly changed directions and walked toward it. If it had opened, there was a chance that they could all leave their confinement immediately. The chance was slim that it had been left unlocked accidentally, but that also wasn’t the only possibility for why it might be. It was, without a shadow of a doubt, purposeful how the gate had been removed. It was done neatly to expose a perfectly shaped pathway that was mirrored on both sides of the entryway. It was certain that it had been intentional, so it also stood to reason that they might not be trapped here at all in the first place. Or if they were, that it had been temporary for some reason.

 _But why would they bother locking us in temporarily?_ She thought to herself. The bars and wire around the windows were still there too. Still, if they were still trapped, what was the point of opening the gates in the first place?

Maki decided to pause that thought line for the time being. There was a girl standing near the entrance. She was wearing an outfit Maki suspected would cost more alone than her entire wardrobe. An elegant dress with a perfect obsidian black top and a deep blue body flowed down perfectly around her. Her hair was a refined silver blond, held back on one side with a jeweled hair clip. The other side of her face was partially covered in a neat waterfall of hair over one of her eyes. She was even wearing what seemed to be long satin gloves that reached her elbows. The girl stood primly, gazing up at the area above where she stood, facing away from the large door.

“Did you come from outside?” Maki asked her as she approached. That was the logical explanation for the situation, after all. The other girl waited a moment before she shifted her eyes to glance over Maki silently. Maki could feel her piercing emerald eyes judging every inch of her. She resisted the urge to shift uncomfortably.

“I did,” the girl allowed, speaking with a measured and proper tone. “I take it that you were one of those that were locked _inside_ , then?”

“Ah, yes,” was Maki’s far less dignified response. Honestly, she didn’t even want to _try_ keeping to this person’s level of manors. It seemed exhausting. “Do you know why we’re here?” 

It had seemed likely that this girl would actually know something, considering that she had been beyond the confines of the academy walls. Despite this, she just gave a slight shake of her head, making her pendant sapphire earrings swing. “Unfortunately, no.”

“Why did you come in here then?” She tried. She must know _something_. “Are we trapped here, or can we leave?”

“Hmm, I wonder,” the girl hummed melodically. “I suppose you can find that out yourself now, can’t you?”

She turned to leave, her heels clicking softly on the hard ground.

“Wait!” Maki called after her. She couldn’t be leaving already, could she? “Shouldn’t we introduce ourselves?”

The girl paused, having been about to begin stepping away. “And the point of that would be…?” 

All Maki could do was blink, being taken aback. “What’s the point…?” Perhaps it had been because of the attitude of everyone she’d meet previously being completely in line with getting to know each other, but Maki was at a loss for words. She herself hadn’t been the most cooperative when first asked to go through introductions, but that had been because she hadn’t understood what was going on. Why would this girl…?

Perhaps deciding to take pity on her, the girl sighed lightly and turn back to meet Maki’s stunned expression. “My name is Kirumi Tojo. I trust I don’t need to say any more than that for _you_?”

Oh. OH. Maki had definitely heard that name before. “You’re _the_ Kirumi Tojo?” She exclaimed.  
“The famous artist? You’re a high school student?”

It was surprising, learning that she was. Maki had always assumed that the artist Kirumi Tojo would be of a more mature age with how many years she had been hearing her name, and for the size of her reputation. She had never seen her art personally (well, almost no one had seen more than a few illegal photographs smuggled from viewing events, but that hardly counted as the real thing) but she had seen and read numerous articles in the last few years describing the experience of going to visit one of her art galleries. Kirumi’s art was supposedly more about the _experience_ of it more than any individual piece or photograph could be. 

Secretly, though she would never admit being interested it to the other kids she used to live with, Maki had once attempted to seek out tickets for a gallery showcase of Kirumi’s artwork. She’d nearly fainted when she’d heard the pricing.

Surprisingly contrary to her previously cold demeanor, Kirumi gave a slight smile with a fleeting moment of warmth that seemed to temporarily thaw her frigidity, though it was gone as quickly as it had appeared, returning back to a polite but distant expression. “I am indeed.” She allowed, giving a small nod. “My talent was recognized by the Ultimate Initiative to be worthy of being called that of the Ultimate Artist.”

“Yeah, I can imagine,” Maki’s mouth said, for some reason. “I’m sure you’re more than deserving of that title.” 

“Indeed.” Kirumi turned halfway away from her, letting Maki view her in profile. Her head tilted up, and although Maki couldn’t currently see her eyes because of the angle and the bangs covering the one closest to her, she could tell that they had shifted their attention upwards. Maki followed her presumed line of sight to see what looked like the second floor above them, though it seemed like it was boarded up and blocked from view. Kirumi took a step forwards away from Maki.

“I’m going on ahead to search these premises. Alone,” Kirumi suddenly spoke up again, starting Maki. She took a few steps further away. “You have the area beyond these doors to investigate.”

“Wait! Don’t you want my name too?”

Kirumi ignored her and continued walking away, completely dignified and proper in her steps. I guess not then. _Well that was an odd encounter._

Maki shook it off and looked back at the set of doors that she still hoped would bring answers to her situation. Kirumi hadn’t corrected her when she’d asked if the area beyond was outside, but also hadn’t explicitly confirmed it. There was still the question of why Kirumi hadn’t known anything about their situation either. It could be just that she didn’t care to say, or didn’t know enough to feel confident in an answer, but… There was only one sure way to find out.

She took a moment to steady herself by taking a few deep breaths before striding confidently towards the door. Without giving herself a moment to doubt her decision, she pulled open the heavy door and stepped through into the bright sunlight. 

There, suddenly surrounding her, was the bright blue sky, a symbol of freedom, and yet-  
Metal bars. Surrounding the entirety of the academy and the grounds around it was a giant wall and cage. Maki’s breath caught in her throat. No matter where she looked, she couldn’t find an opening that they could pass through. 

How could someone have constructed this? How could no one realize that this massive _birdcage_ was being constructed? It just didn’t seem possible that something like this could be made in the middle of Japan so… Where in the world _were they_? How far had they been taken? 

So many questions blazed through Maki’s mind that she understood why Kirumi had said she didn’t have an answer for what was going on. It only brought questions. She knew she couldn’t give up here. There was still more to investigate, still a chance that-

“Hey, you came out here too!” Called a somewhat familiar sounding voice, startling Maki from her train of thought for not the first time today. She quickly turned to look around herself, searching for the source. It didn’t take long to notice that there were, in fact, two other people in the area just beyond the entrance. She immediately recognized them as the two people she had first met upon waking up here. Shuichi had been the one to call out, and seemed to be making his way up to her now while Rantaro stayed where he was some distance away, only watching from afar. Apparently, the two of them had made their way outside before her. 

Shuichi reached her. He must have noticed her unease at the revelation of their situation because he gave a sympathetic smile. “Yeah, the walls are a little concerning…” He chuckled awkwardly and continued, a tinge of uneasiness clear in his voice. “We haven’t checked around the entire perimeter yet, but it does seem like we’re pretty stuck for the time being.”

As much as she hated to, she had to admit that he appeared to be right. Even from here, she could tell how _massive_ the wall stopping them would be, and the odd angle it was poised at would make it incredibly difficult to climb. They were trapped.

“Why bother with this, though?” She asked aloud.

Shuichi tilted his head slightly. “What do you mean? Why we’re being kept here, or…?”

“That too, but why would they give us so much space to begin with? Why construct, or modify, something so enormous to keep us in in the first place? Wouldn’t this be… _noticed_? By someone?”

“Ah, yeah… I was wondering about that too. This huge dome or whatever we’re in seems like it would attract attention, right?” He brushed a piece of hair that had fallen down away from his eyes as he answered her. “I guess… we still don’t know why we’re here I suppose. Is it possible that this was something that the Ultimate Initiative set up itself? That’s all I can think of anyways.”

Maki considered the theory. That did make some amount of sense, since the initiative was in possession of all of their location information, like home addresses and schools, to have been able to get them here in the first place. Ultimate students were spread all over the country after all. “That still doesn’t explain how we arrived, or what they would want us here for.” 

Shuichi looked pensive at that, but ultimately shrugged. “We’ll find out eventually, I’m assuming. The ah, Monokubs, mentioned that we’d all be doing an “activity” together later. They seemed to want us to explore and meet each other first before whatever it is. Did, um, did you finish checking the inside of the school area?”

“Oh, I didn’t. I got distracted when I realized that the gates blocking the entrance were gone,” Maki realized. “When did that happen, anyway?”

“Erm, just a few minutes before you came out here I think. So maybe 10 minutes ago now? Rantaro and I saw it open up actually. It was pretty surprising…” Shuichi looked like he suddenly realized something. He spun around, seemingly searching for something. “Speaking of Rantaro, um… Where did he go??” 

Maki took a moment to look around as well. She spied Kaede off in the distance, apparently dragging around a somewhat reluctant Tsumugi, and another person that she hadn’t met a little ways down, but Rantaro was nowhere to be seen. She had seen him earlier with Shuichi after just exiting the school doors, but it appeared that he hadn’t ended up following Shuichi over to her and had instead wandered off alone.

“Looks like he ditched you,” Maki said. Shuichi pouted. 

“I think I should go find him,” Shuichi tried, but Maki just raised an eyebrow. “It’s just probably best if we, ah… Since we were going to need to check the same places…”

“You really don’t have to be walking _everywhere_ with him, you know.”

Shuichi flushed, clearly embarrassed. “Y-yeah. I suppose.”

There was a moment of somewhat awkward silence before Maki decided that it would be a good idea to continue on exploring, since the conversation didn’t seem to be going anywhere anymore. She decided to be courteous. “Look, if you really want to, you can come with me. I was going to investigate too.”

“Oh! U-um, sure. Yes! That would be great. Thank you.”

She turned slowly to start walking, keeping an eye on Shuichi to make sure he was actually fine with following. When he stumbled a moment then started walking alongside her, she turned back to looking forward. “So what have you already seen out here?”

“Not a lot yet, or at least not up close or anything. A lot of the directions seem blocked off right now. It does, um look like there are dorms here, but I haven’t looked inside yet…” 

Dorms, huh? That definitely confirmed that they were probably being expected to stay here for some extended period of time. Or at the very least, that the option was entertained. This really didn’t bode well. If this just some harmless event for the Ultimate Students they would have been _told about it beforehand_ , right? Her head pounded a bit at the thought.

“Maybe… this is some sort of test?” Shuichi spoke up again suddenly, startling her a bit. 

“What?”

“I-I don’t know. Just… Maybe the UI is testing us or something? Um. This definitely isn’t just some random school, so…” He gripped one of his arms tightly with the other. “D-did you end up getting to see the second floor?”

Maki silently cursed. Of course one of the areas that she had gotten distracted from investigating before would have been important. “No, I didn’t. Why, what was there?”

“Not a t-ton, mostly empty classrooms, but… There was one room that the Monokubs called an “Ultimate Lab” for me… It wasn’t open yet, but the door definitely looked like it was, um, piano themed. Apparently, we’re all going to be getting one… but they aren’t ready yet?” Shuichi had to rush briefly to keep up with Maki’s walking pace.

Ultimate Labs? That meant that it would be a room related to their ultimate talents in some way, didn’t it? Hmm… “I’ll have to check that out later myself.”

“Yeah! Um, maybe we could go together when it’s uh, opened up.” Shuichi fidgeted for a moment before quickly changing the subject. “So! There’s another person that we should talk to! Over… uh over there. I haven’t been all the way over here yet so I haven’t talked to them either…”

“I was planning on it,” was Maki’s blunt response. Did he really think that she would be walking towards someone only to ignore them? _Actually_ , she admitted to herself, _normally I probably would have._ Shuichi’s first impression of her probably hadn’t helped his view of her either. Still, in this situation, it was important to get a grip on every aspect of who was here and why. Surely _someone here_ knew something, right?

The two of them came to the area where the stranger was, which appeared to be a sort of courtyard area with the type of stone tables you’d find in an ordinary park. The other person was wearing a brown windbreaker jacket over a light purple tee, hiking boots, and was wearing an olive backpack, making Maki confident that his talent would be something outdoorsy. His purple hair was messily spiked over to one side, but his goatee looked cleanly styled and shaped, leading Maki to believe that his unkempt hair was probably intentional. He was looking upwards to the sky, and only seemed to notice their presence once they were practically standing next to him.

“Oh, hey!” His voice was loud but jovial as he looked between the two of them curiously. “You guys are stuck here too, huh? Sure is quite the situation we’ve found ourselves in!”

“You seem awfully unconcerned with it,” Maki observed with a raised eyebrow. “Aren’t you worried about being stuck in here with no explanation?”

He grinned and shifted his backpack’s straps. “Well, sure, but you can’t get anywhere with just complaining, y’know? And I’ve been in plenty of rough spots before, so I know I’ll be able to get outta this one! Can’t say I’ve ever been stuck in this _particular_ situation before, though!” He looked back up at the cage above them with intrigue. 

“Yeah, I’m… sure we’ll be ok…” Shuichi said nervously, eyes flitting off to the side.

“Geez, say it with more conviction, dude! We’ll definitely figure a way past that big-ass wall, so no need to worry!” He struck a pose, winking while giving them both a thumbs-up. This guy certainly had confidence if nothing else, Maki noted. “Besides, there’s no way a dumb cage could keep me away from fulfilling my destiny!”

“Your destiny?”

“Oops, I never introduced myself to you guys! I’m Kaito Momota, of the Legendary Wandering Hero of the World! There’s no way anyone can keep the Ultimate Adventurer down for long!”

“My name is Maki Harukawa. Ultimate Astronaut,” Maki said blankly.

“Ah, and I’m the Ultimate Pianist, Shuichi Saihara…” Shuichi added, trying to smile politely. “It’s nice to meet you, Kaito.”

“Course it is! And those are some cool talents you got there yourselves, so be proud of ‘em!” was Kaito’s boisterous response. “Anyways, there’s no way our captors can keep a hero like me from adventure. I’ll find a way outta this somehow. And I’ll bring all of you guys with me too!”

Maki resisted the urge to roll her eyes. “ _How_ , though?”

Kaito looked surprised, and Maki could see him start to sweat a bit. He saluted her almost defensively. “I’ll come up with a plan eventually! Before I can go out and explore the world again, I’ve just gotta explore this academy!”

Well that was true, at least. That was their current plan as well. 

“So, how do you think they got us in here?” said Kaito, changing the subject once again. “There’s gotta be somewhere that the wall opens up if they got us in, right?” 

“That’s true,” Maki considered. “There should be a way in or out somewhere, even if it’s locked. And even if it is, we could potentially break it open.”

“Ah… unless they built the wall _around_ us,” said Shuichi, making Maki turn to look at him curiously.

“What do you mean? Something of this size would take a huge amount of time to construct.”

“W-well, we don’t know how long we’ve been out for…” Shuichi trailed off nervously. “U-um. And they could have also just _finished_ building it once we inside, you know? A lot of the facilities here do still seem to be under construction so…”

“No need to be so negative, Shuichi!” Kaito put his fists together. “If you keep focusing on the bad possibilities you’ll get stuck thinkin’ like that!”

Maki considered both of them for a moment and then sighed. “It’s not a bad idea to consider things realistically, but we also don’t know enough right now to make any judgments like that. Let’s just save this conversation for later…”

Shuichi still seemed silently troubled, but nodded. Kaito accepted her response with a smile. “Sure thing Maki Roll!”

_“What did you just call me?”_

“N-No need to look so scary! I was j-just joking!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn't do the talent swaps exactly one-for-one~! If you didn't get to that point in the game where you know what I'm talking about... don't worry about it lol
> 
> Sorry about not getting to Kokichi, Himiko, and Korekiyo yet, but I'll get to them next chapter for sure! This is your last chance to guess talents of those three~! OR IS IT-
> 
> Anyways, lemme know your thoughts and plot guesses too!


	5. Mystery Pair

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This took way too long to write.

After Kaito parted ways with them to continue on towards the school, Maki and Shuichi decided that it would most make sense for them to investigate the dorms. The building was definitely peculiar looking. It was shaped oddly, being almost circular. 

Maki approached the entrance with Shuichi close behind, not knowing what to expect. Sure enough, the door opened easily without much effort, and the interior was revealed. Surprisingly, the interior was even more circular than the outside had been. A double-stacked ring of rooms, two floors worth of the dorms circled around the center area. Two sets of stairs on either side of the large room led up to a walkway that circled around the upper rooms and allowed access to them. 

By the foot of one of them, someone stood as the only other person in the room. He was leaning against the railing, but stood up straight once he noticed the two of them enter the room. He was tall, and dressed very normally in a dark school jacket and brown slacks. The only things that particularly stuck out as odd was the plain black face mask he wore, covering his nose and mouth, and his long flowing dark hair.

“So these are dorms meant for us?” Shuichi was the first to speak up, and Maki couldn’t tell which of them he was addressing. She got the feeling that Shuichi didn’t know who he was asking either.

The other boy hesitated for a moment, possibly wondering the same thing, before deciding to answer the question regardless in a silky voice. “It appears so. There are 16 rooms, each marked with what I imagine to be one of our likeness.”

He was right, Maki noted as she walked a bit closer to one side of the room. Each door, in place of having name cards or plaques, had a small pixelated image that might have resembled the people she remembered having met. All but a few of them were at least somewhat familiar; She could recognize a blond one as being the cheerful Kaede, and another with a top hat as representing Tenko.

“Have you already checked inside them?” She asked the stranger, turning to look at him briefly. 

He shook his head slowly. “The door to what would presumably be my own roomed appeared to be locked. I can’t say I’ve tried any of the others.”

Maki nodded and went to test some of the doors in front of her, and she noticed Shuichi move to test some of the ones on the other side. Every one that she tried rattled but failed to open, and it seemed that Shuichi faired the same. She hadn’t checked the upper floor’s doors, but didn’t bother with them just yet, instead walking back towards where the boy was. “It seems like they all probably are.”

Shuichi joined them a moment later, frowning. “They’re clearly meant for us, right? Why would they be locked…?”

The masked boy looked like he wanted to say something, glancing up at the upper floor, but just shrugged as a response.

“Well depending on how _benevolent_ our mysterious captors are, they might either open them up or give us our own keys later. I doubt that they would prepare rooms for us if they didn’t want us staying in them,” Maki theorized. “Of course, this still all depends on _why we’re here,_ but…”

Oddly, the unknown boy seemed to perk up at her words. “You aren’t aware of the situation either then? I thought I might be the only one ah… out of the loop.”

Shuichi tilted his head. “Why would you think that?” Internally, Maki realized why Shuichi was asking. It sounded like this person might have come across someone who knew something.

“That’s…” the boy started, but trailed off with a sigh. “…Never mind. Why don’t we just introduce ourselves?”

“Oh, um. Ok… My name is Shuichi Saihara. I’m the Ultimate Pianist. And this is Maki Harukawa, the Ultimate Astronaut…” Shuichi realized what he had said and turned back to Maki, looking apologetic. “Er, sorry for not letting you introduce yourself, Maki!” 

Maki just raised an eyebrow.

“So there are Ultimates here… Or, well. Other Ultimates, I suppose,” the boy commented. “I suppose that does credit what those ‘Monokubs’ were saying earlier then.”

That was an interesting reaction. “Are we the first people you’ve met, then?”

“No, not quite. The only other interaction I’ve taken part in however was… unhelpful, simply put.” Maki noticed a tired look flashed across his eyes. “My name is Korekiyo Shinguji, and unfortunately it seems I can’t remember what my ultimate talent is.”

“Can’t remember…?” Maki voiced. “What does that-“

Maki was interrupted by the sound of a door closing above them. Two of them jerked their heads up, startled by the sound, and Korekiyo just sighed.

A purple haired boy in white stared down at them curiously from over the banister. “Oh hey, more people are here now!”

“W-where did you come from?” Shuichi sputtered, the obvious answer seeming too impossible in that moment for him to be confident in believing it. 

The boy above them ignored the question and leaned further over the railing dangerously, peering at them intently.

“A-ah, be careful!” called Shuichi, but the boy just hummed as he leaned back, away from the edge. He nimbly maneuvered across the walkway and slid down the railing of the stairs to stand before them. 

“Were you just in your room?” Maki asked him with narrowed eyes, glancing to where he had been standing above them. Just behind that spot was a door marked with a pixelated face with the same shade of dark purple for hair.

The boy only dismisses her with a vague, “Don’t worry about it.” 

Now that he was down the stairs and next to them, Maki noticed just how short the boy was. He was wearing black shorts under something that was probably most akin to an oversized hoodie, but was cut in such a way that it seemed more like it was draped over him as a cloak. The sleeves were wide and would have covered his hands with their length if it weren’t for the fact that they had slits going all the way up on their undersides where his hands poked through. Emblazoned on the white almost-jacket was a black design clearly made to resemble a human skeleton.

“Fine,” Maki allowed for the time being. “Who are you, then?”

The boy’s face shifted to look pained, as if he’d been hurt by her words. “Y-you’re not even going to tell me who you are first?” he cried, seeming as though he were on the edge of bursting into tears. Sure enough, a moment later twin waterfalls erupted almost violently from his eyes. “You’ve only just met me, and I’m already being interrogated like a criminal?? WAAAAAAAAHH, YOU’RE SO MEAN!!”

Shuichi was quick to fall for it, and hastily tried to console him. “W-wait! She didn’t mean it like-“

Contrary to both of their expectations, the boy suddenly let out a cackling laugh, all traces of the tears he’d been spewing gone. “Ah-haha! I wouldn’t blame you for it! It’s only fair to be suspicious of someone like me after all~!”

Behind them, Korekiyo sighed once again. The purple haired kid beamed. 

“But fine, fine. And I already heard you introduce yourselves, so don’t bore me with repeats! _My_ name is Kokichi Oma, and my _ultimate talent_ is a secret!”

“A secret,” Maki could hear herself say in disbelief. “You aren’t going to tell us what talent you have…?”

Kokichi’s grin widened. “It’s only fair! Kork didn’t share his, so I’m not going to either~!”

“I wasn’t withholding my talent purposely,” said Korekiyo, and Maki could hear the frown in his voice. “I can’t remember what it is.”

“But you could be _lying_ about having amnesia, riiight? That’s pretty suspicious!”

“And yet you’re the one who just came out of a room that should have been locked,” Maki said flatly.

“Yeah, yeah…” Kokichi had the audacity to actually yawn at her while stretching his arms up over his head.

“How… did you get in, then?” Shuichi piped up. “Was it unlocked…?”

“I wonder!” Kokichi brought a finger up to his cheek and blinked at them inquisitively. “Say, aren’t you curious about what’s inside your own rooms?”

“I-I guess, but-“

As soon as Shuichi had begun his answer, Kokichi leered into him, not quite menacingly, but certainly getting uncomfortably close enough for Shuichi to feel more than a little uneasy. He spoke, more softly and seriously than he had before, but with it came an intensity and pressure that Maki couldn’t begin to describe. “Then do you wanna see it?”

“I… suppose…?” Shuichi said hesitantly, uncertain what answering as such would bring.

“Great!” Suddenly the tense moment was over, all trace of seriousness gone from his voice as he sprang up, making Shuichi visibly jump. Kokichi’s hand snaked forward and latched onto Shuichi’s wrist, and he began pulling him towards the room on the end on one side of the first floor, where the door with Shuichi’s own portrait was.

Maki snuck a glance at Korekiyo, who seemed to have no intention of following, a weary expression in his eyes. Maki herself followed carefully.

“Hey, wait a second!” Shuichi protested, but Kokichi had already let go of his hand and had crouched in front of the door to his room. It took Shuichi a moment to wrap his head around the sudden change. “Um, what are you doing?”

“The door’s locked,” was all Kokichi said, as if that explained anything.

“Then what are you doing…?” Shuichi tried again.

“Opening it!”

“…Do you have the key…?” 

“Nope!” He replied cheerily as the door clicked open. Kokichi stood up and stretched his arms behind his back, but Maki noticed him subtly slip something thin into a pocket of his jacket. _Was that…?_ Maki didn’t think it was a key, but before she could ask to confirm her suspicious, Kokichi spoke again. “Anyways, here’s your room! I bet you’re _super_ thankful to me now, right? Right?”

“I… sure. Thanks,” Shuichi gave in. He cautiously approached what was apparently his own room and peaked in. Intrigued, Maki followed closely behind him, past Kokichi who was holding the door open for them, grinning.

The room was neat and orderly, if sparse, as expected of an unused dorm. There was a made bed with a nightstand next to it, and a coffee table that had a small metal stand with a key hanging from it. 

“Aw, it looks the same as mine…” Kokichi finally walked in behind them, not bothering to close the door behind him. He gave a mock pout.

“They’re probably all the same… ah, maybe,” Shuichi said awkwardly.

“Riiiiiight,” Kokichi drawled. “Well, you never know until we search! So get to it, peasants!”

“You aren’t going to help us investigate?” Maki frowned. 

“B-But…! I Already searched a room! And I had to do it all by myself because Kiyo said he wouldn’t help meeeeee…” Tears welled up in the corner of his eyes once again.

 _Yeah, I’m not falling for that._ This kid had already proved he’d fake a tantrum to get pity.

“Then stay out of our way,” she intoned dismissively, already moving to check a door in the corner that looked like it would lead to a bathroom. 

“How cruel…”

As they combed the room, they discovered a variety of things. For one, the bathroom was complete with its own shower and basic toiletries, fully prepared for its inhabitant. The closet held a number of outfits identical to Shuichi’s own down to the smallest detail. The spare vests all had the exact same five-note pattern in the same positions as they were on the original. 

“How is this… possible?” Shuichi wondered, a bit disbelieving. “They perfectly recreated the outfit I happened to be wearing when… whatever this is happened?”

“Yeah same here!” Kokichi piped up. “And my jacket’s _way_ more complicated and unique than something that could just be bought, y’know?”

“That’s…” Maki started, “Sort of concerning, isn’t it? That they’d be able to get it so close to the original? That would take a lot of time and skill.”

“Well we already knew from the sheer size and content of this academy that this had to have been planned for a long time, and that it would require a ton of resources,” said Shuichi. “Just kidnapping 16 ultimate students in the first place would, really.”

“Hm hm,” Kokichi nodded his head in agreement. “But when did they do _this part_ of it, huh? IF it was before we were kidnapped, that means they would have been stalking us for a long time, getting into our rooms, stealing our laundry to study and then return…”

Maki frowned, thinking. She felt like she could tell where he was going with this, and it was something that she had noticed too.

“…But don’t you think that’s pretty unlikely?” Kokichi continued after letting the two others in the room contemplate his statement for a moment. “I don’t know about your clothes, but mine are one of a kind. There’s no way for them to copy it without getting up close and personal, and it’s not like I use the dry cleaner’s or anything.”

“Where are you going with this…?” Shuichi asked, a bit worried.

“He means that they had to have replicated them after we were already kidnapped,” Maki sighed. “Unless they have a way to just instantly reproduce even unique items of clothing, we would had to have been out for… A long time.”

“Yep!” cried Kokichi far too cheerily. “I also noticed that I was _preeeetty_ sore when I woke up. Any of you three get that?”

 _Three?_ Maki swiveled around to notice that Korekiyo was now leaning against the frame of the room’s door. Maki wondered how long he’s been there.

Korekiyo, in responded, presumably because Kokichi had purposely mentioned him, “…Indeed, I was.”

“Oh, yeah, I guess I was too…” Shuichi admitted. “I thought it was just from waking up in a locker, and then, um, falling out of it, but…” 

“You woke up in a locker?” Maki asked him, and Shuichi flushed a bit. Well, that wasn’t important. “I definitely experienced stiffness as well. It felt like it was from more than just a few hours, too. Which means that they probably kept us under for multiple days…”

“That isn’t… too much bigger of an issue though, right?” said Shuichi. “I mean, if it was only a few days over a few hours… What difference does that make, exactly? Even that amount of time seems too short to prepare something like… all this.”

He gestured to everything around them, and presumably also to the entirety of the academy.

“Just something to think about~!” Kokichi sing-songed, skipping over to the drawers next to the bed that they had yet to investigate.

Surprisingly, they discovered that the draws weren’t all totally empty. Most of them were, but the bottom drawer in particular held a single item that none of them could figure out the purpose of supplying.

It was a hat.

A black baseball cap with no distinctive features other than the three white lines that were on one side of it. It certainly seemed to match the aesthetic of what Shuichi was wearing, being somewhat similar to the five thinner lines on his sweater and being the same colors, but it lacked the music notes.

“Have you ever seen this before?” Kokichi asked, sounding oddly serious.

“No, never,” Shuichi looked as confused as the rest of them. “I’ve never been in the habit of wearing hats before… can’t really do that sort of thing when you’re on stage, you know? I can’t think of why they would give me one… Was there one in your room, Kokichi?”

“Nope! There’s no way I’d have a lame emo hat like that~!”

“Huh…” Shuichi seemed too distracted to feel offended at Kokichi’s wording. He set it back into the drawer from where he had lifted it and shut it gently. 

“Wonder what that was about, huh?” Kokichi asked, but his tone made it clear that he meant it rhetorically. He moved over to the coffee table where the stand and key were, snatching it up. 

“Ah, hey! Give me that!” Shuichi protested, making a grab at it as Kokichi toyingly moved it just out of his reach.

“Maybe I keep it so that you have to beg me to open your room every time you wanna get in!” Kokichi’s grin is stretched across the entirety of his face. “I like the thought of forcing you to rely on me! Maybe I should steal _everyone’s_ keys so that I’ll be all-powerful!”

Shuichi looked genuinely worried that he might do just that. “Please give me my key…?” he tried.

“Aw, look who’s being polite! Fine, fine!” Kokichi tossed the key towards Shuichi, who fumbled catching it for a moment before slipping it into his dress pants pocket with a sigh of relief. “Aaaanyways, this is getting boring. So, I think I’ll be on my way~! The rest of the rooms will probably be opened officially later, and I don’t have time to be everyone’s babysitter!”

“That’s the exact opposite of what you were just saying,” Maki noted, but Kokichi just shrugged.

“And, ah, you won’t _really_ go breaking into everyone’s rooms to steal their keys, right…?” Shuichi asked.

As Kokichi passed by Korekiyo in the doorway he grabbed his wrist and began pulling him along to his next destination. “Who knows! Maybe I will after all~!”

“Wait…!” Shuichi called after him, but he was already gone. His shoulders slumped down from their tensed position. He glanced over at Maki. “He won’t actually do it. Will he…?”

“He won’t,” Maki said. She didn’t think that he would be doing that now, seeing as they were still in the building and that Korekiyo was with him. Then again, he hadn’t done the best job at keeping them informed about it before…

“He better not,” she amended.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I decided to split intros again rip... So Himiko has not been met yet haha. It was taking me way too long to write just this portion, so this is where I'm gonna call it. Kokichi was interesting to write. Kind of hard, since I needed it to have the right feeling. I think I managed it pretty well tho
> 
> Also, for reference to what Kokichi is wearing, I took inspiration from his first beta design, but I inverted the colors! 
> 
> Also, you learned no new talents this chapter =,)
> 
> Feel free to guess what's going on with these two tho! And also what I'm doing for this here plottttt


	6. Garden of Theories

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dawn of the end of introductions.

“You know, it’s… really weird how clean this is compared to the school building,” Shuichi said as they checked to make sure that the key to his room actually worked on its door. It had, and solely that door as well. “That seems… way older and almost undisturbed. Why is that, do you think?”

“Well you mentioned earlier how some things are under construction,” Maki replied. “The school might be one of them, I guess. The entire dorm building looks like it’s sort of out of place in a way that makes me think it was built somewhere else and then dropped here.”

They were alone in the dorms now with nothing else to investigate, so it was time that they moved on. It seemed that Kokichi and Korekiyo had already left the building a while ago.

“Yeah, but like” Shuichi continued, “we’ve already talked about how much they had to have prepared all of this situation beforehand, right? Isn’t it… weird that they didn’t bother to fully clear out _that_ building? They should have had plenty of time.”

“That’s true,” Now that she thought about it, all of the things that she had been noticing about that building seemed to imply that... 

“It might have been intentional. I have no idea _why_ but… It seems almost, like they wanted it to be that way? It’s sort of _too_ perfect,” Shuichi suggested. 

Yeah, that.

“Why would they even want it to be run down like that, though?” Maki said as they made their way out into the bright light of the outdoors.

“Ah, aesthetic, maybe?” Shuichi half-joked. “Maybe they’re a fan of overactive vegetation?”

It was honestly as good a guess as any.

Conversation fading into a somewhat awkward silence, the two of them continued their exploration of the grounds. There was a patio on the side of the school building, with a door that would presumably lead into where the dining hall should be but was for some reason currently locked. With nothing left of note that wasn’t currently blocked off by very clearly purposely placed rubble and other miscellaneous blockages, they headed down the large set of stairs in the courtyard. 

The lower area was lush, with forest and greenery surrounding a circular patio. The only apparent building structure was a beautiful birdcage. Maki thought immediately how strange it was that there would be a smaller cage inside the larger one they were stuck in, and was pretty sure that the shape was meant to subtly remind them of their entrapment on purpose.

There was also a small peculiar statue that didn’t seem to be currently relevant to anything.

“Wow, it’s actually… pretty nice looking down here,” said Shuichi, scanning the lines of trees and grass. “I think it’s-oh hey, there’s a person.”

Neither of them had noticed her at first, but there was actually a small girl crouched in the grass a ways away from the paved clearing, to the side of the cage. She was tiny to begin with, and her positioning had made her even easier to miss. Oddly, she seemed to be dressed in winter clothes, sporting a knit earflap hat and puffy jacket.

“I think she’s the only person I haven’t seen yet…” Shuichi commented. “If I’ve, uh, been keeping track correctly I mean.”

“That… might be for me too, actually.” Maki ran over the people she’d seen in her mind. First it had been Shuichi and Rantaro, then Kaede and Tsumugi, right? Or no, she’d met Ryoma in there too, and then… she’d met Tenko, Angie, and Gonta in the dining hall, then that robot and cosplayer in the warehouse… Wait how many was that again? Maki shook her head to clear her thoughts.

At first, they tried to call out to the girl to get her attention from they were standing, but she remained unresponsive and turned away from them, eyes focused downwards on the ground where she was sifting her hands through the grass. In the end, they made their way through the grass to her themselves, curious to what she was doing. 

“Hey, um… What are you doing?” Shuichi tried asking her, unable to see what she was looking at. “Did you drop something?”

“…” The girl seemed completely absorbed in whatever it was that she was doing, and didn’t give any indication that she had even noticed their approach. 

“Ah, hello…?” Shuichi tried again, and reached out to briefly touch her shoulder.

“Nyeh…” She mumbled distractedly. “M’looking for bugs.”

“Uh, what?” said a confused Shuichi.

“Bugs?” Maki wondered, peering down over her shoulder at the grass that the girl was separating with her hands, unable to see what bugs she was talking about.

“Nyeh, I’m looking for bugs,” the girl repeated, more clearly but still distracted sounding this time. “Normally you can see a whole bunch of bugs in grass like this...”

“O..kay… Why don’t we, uh, introduce ourselves?” Shuichi tried.

“Introductions are a pain…” the girl grumbled while reaching up with one hand to pull her hat back over her tangled red hair from where it had slipped to cover her eyes. 

Shuichi shifted awkwardly from where he was standing a few feet away. “I guess I’ll start then… My name is Shuichi Saihara, and I’m the Ultimate Pianist.” 

There was only silence as both the red-haired girl and now Maki stared silently at the ground.

“Ahh, Maki, you should too…” 

“…Maki Harukawa. Astronaut.” Maki stated bluntly, not moving her eyes away from the girl’s sifting hands in the grass.

“…Himiko Yumeno. Entomologist,” the girl replied similarly. 

“What are you, seeing…?” Shuichi asked, clearly anxious at being so thoroughly ignored. 

“Nothing,” Maki replied simply.

Shuichi’s confusion was palpable.

Perhaps taking pity on him, Maki finally explained in a bit more detail. “I’m not seeing any bugs at all. Himiko’s right, normally this type of plant soil is teaming with them, but I can’t see _any_.” 

“Eh?” Shuichi stepped forwards to look over Maki’s shoulder, who was, in turn, looking over Himiko’s to stair at the same patch of ground. “Huh. Yeah, that _is_ strange…”

For a few moments, the three of them stared in silence at the grass and dirt before Himiko made an annoyed noise. “Can you guys not stand over me like that?”

Shuichi jumped slightly, and then rubbed the back of his head, embarrassed. “Erm… Sorry about that.”

Maki stepped away calmly, though she was still in thought. “The soil here is really rich, and the grass seems like it’s been growing here for a while with how tall it’s gotten. It’s possible we just missed them, but it’s… weird, that we couldn’t see any.”

“That’s… I mean, we weren’t looking over that much area, and it would be pretty easy for them to hide,” Shuichi reasoned as the two of them left Himiko be. “And there could always have been… pesticide used? To lower the amount of them...”

“Yeah…” She frowned. They’d just have to wait on them, she supposed. If Himiko was the Ultimate Entomologist, then she could probably figure it out. It wasn’t something they should be worrying about right now anyway.

It wasn’t difficult to decide where to go next, seeing as the peculiar cage was right by them as the seemingly only remaining thing they could check right now beyond the outer regions of the academy. They’d worry about the forest and wall later. For now, they approached the cage’s bright red doors. 

There shouldn’t have been any more people to meet, so they weren’t expecting anyone to have been inside, but when the opened the doors they were greeted with the back of a familiar figure currently investigating the garden of flora growing all around the interior. 

“Ah, Rantaro!” Shuichi exclaimed, his eyes lighting up with recognition. “So this is where you went! Why’d you go off on your own like that?”

Rantaro turned his head to glance at the two of them absently, before straightening up and walking towards them, face neutral. “I didn’t want to waste time conversing unnecessarily when there was more I could be doing to investigate. Besides, I figured that you had the social aspects covered.”

“That’s… You could have still said something before leaving,” said Shuichi, and Maki could hear the faint hurt in his voice.

“Like I said, I didn’t want to waste time,” Rantaro replied, sounding not at all apologetic. “Have you spoken with all of the other Ultimates?”

“I-I… Yeah, I think we did,” Shuichi said. He fidgeted a bit uncomfortably, and Maki got the feeling that he had was stopping himself from pressing the issue with Rantaro more.

“Great, then let me see your Monopad.”

Shuichi blinked in surprise. “My… Monopad? Um, sure!”

Shuichi scrambled to pull the black and white tablet out of his pocket and then turn it on. As soon as it had, he handed it over to Rantaro, who flicked through some of the options. A moment later he pulled out his own ‘Monopad’ to compare them. The sound of the garden waterfall pounded behind them.

“Looks like you have met everyone,” Rantaro commented after skimming over it, but a moment later a look of concern crossed his face. “Two people don’t have talents listed.”

Curious, Maki fished her own tablet out of her jacket pocket. It seemed to be mostly the same as it was before, though it now included another tab showing a very basic and somewhat unhelpful map of the academy. She instead opened up the student entries. The same basic information categories were displayed for all of them, herself included. Height, weight, blood type, even likes and dislikes. Maki supposed that Keebo’s lack of a listed blood type and disproportionate weight certainly seemed to indicate that he was indeed a robot, contrary to what Miu had seemed to think. The final category listed was the “talent” section, filled in exactly as each person had said, except for two people. Korekiyo and Kokichi’s talent sections were both marked only with a triple question mark.

Shuichi moved to peek around Rantaro and then chuckled a bit. “Oh, um, yeah… Korekiyo said that he couldn’t remember his talent, and Kokichi said he wouldn’t tell us his…”

Rantaro frowned and checked between them again, seeming to be contemplating something. “So either because _you_ don’t know their talents, or, rather, because _they_ haven’t revealed them, it’s not listed here… Hmm…”

Maki got the feeling that Rantaro was muttering more to himself than talking to either of them. Still, she wanted to know what thinking about this. If he hadn’t dismissed it already, there had to be something potentially important he was thinking of. He _was_ the Ultimate Detective after all. “What does that mean for us?”

“Huh?” Shuichi sounded surprised, and glanced between the two of them. He looked as though there was something he wasn’t getting. “Is that a clue?”

Rantaro nodded seriously while his eyes read over the file again and again. “It could be. Think about what’s activating the information in our tablets.”

Maki considered this, thinking back to the way that the student files used to look. They had been greyed out except for the few people she had seen and herself. But now they were filled in, after she had met everyone, except for the information she hadn’t been told. Except... “Why does it only show the information we don’t know about the talents? We weren’t told about anyone’s other sections either.”

Rantaro looked up at her, not surprised, but with a vague interest. “That’s the question, isn’t it? You can write off the body measurements and blood types, but for the likes and dislikes section, it seems odd to be willing to share _that_ with us, however they got it, but not the talent that got them here in the first place. Which certainly implies that there’s a reason why it’s being withheld from us.”

“A reason…” She repeated quietly to herself, thinking. “And it’s just because they didn’t tell us? How does that…?”

“Exactly. It has to be being updated in accordance with what we’ve said. Which certainly implies that we’re being closely monitored.”

_Monitored…_

“There could still be some degree of automatic updates,” Rantaro continued, finally handing Shuichi back his Monopad, “You mentioned that one of them couldn’t remember, for example. If that’s true, then it would mean they could have never prepared any other result to appear.”

 _But if Kokichi actually knows his and just decided not to tell us, that disrupts that theory. It would have had to change based on what he had said. That or… What?_ Maki mentally continued after it was clear that Rantaro wouldn’t be explaining himself further. _Hmm…_

“U-umm… While I’m not doubting that it’s important,” Shuichi cut into the silence. “Um… what should we be… doing? About this or, um, anything really?”

That was true, Maki agreed. No matter how long they spent speculating, that didn’t solve the problem of what they should do about their situation. None of them seemed to have an answer to that.

“Um… well, the Monokubs seemed to know what we were meant to be here for,” Shuichi suggested. “We could try… asking them again? When we asked them before, they said to explore and introduce ourselves to everyone first. And we’ve all, well Maki and I have at least, we’ve uh, done all that, right?”

Rantaro raised an eyebrow as if to ask _And how would we do that?_

“Did you notice anything of importance, Rantaro?” Maki asked to abruptly change the subject and free Shuichi form his very clear embarrassment.

“Nothing conclusive, though there are something’s I’d like to come back to later.” If Rantaro found the transition jarring, he didn’t show it.

“Really?” Shuichi asked. “All we ended up seeing was the dorms, really. Oh! Um, I actually managed to get into my room because of Kokichi-“

Suddenly a bell chime rang and the monitor in the room flared to life, and the three of them spun on a dime to stare at it. On it, an image of five colorful toy bears sitting on a couch was shown, and a slew of chatter began amongst them.

_“Thanks for bearing with us everyone! It’s time for an announcement~!”_

_“HEY-THERE-YOU-BASTARDS! UM… WHAT-WERE-WE-SUPPOSED-TO-SAY-AGAIN?”_

_“Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten already!”_

_“…”_

_“Jeez, stay on script, would’ya?”_

_“OH-RIGHT, I-REMEMBER-NOW! WE'VE-FINISHED-MAKING-PREPARATIONS, SO-EVERYONE-PLEASE-MAKE-YOUR-WAY-TO-THE-GYM!”_

_“Nice save, you had me worried for a second there!”_

_“This announcement is goin’ on way too long, let’s just cut it already…”_

_“Please check your Monopad maps to find it! It can be easy to get lost…”_

_“So long! Bear-well!”_

And with that, the monitor clicked off. 

“What… was that…?” Maki asked hesitantly. Huh, it seemed that Shuichi hadn’t been exaggerating when he said they were talking stuffed animals.

“We should probably listen to them,” said Shuichi. Um, The gym wasn’t opened before, but it should be now if they’re saying that…”

Rantaro’s eyes were still narrowed at the screen, but he ultimately nodded. “Let’s go then.”

It was time to find out what this crazy situation was all about.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yayyy introductions are over! So there's Himiko for you~! Now just to solve the mystery of Korekiyo and Kokichi... And why they're here, I suppose, but I'm sure you already know _that_ ~! The prologue should finish up next chapter with the gym announcement, then we're on to chapter one of the game! 
> 
> Also, your comments and kudos all make me very very happy, so thank you so much for that! Theories are super fun to read too
> 
> Edit: Also, I've now named all the chapters. I might change some of them later, but I think it will be easier to keep track of the story like this. So I'll be naming them going forwards too!


	7. Game START

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> btw I changed the monokub dialogue from the last chapter slightly because I had forgotten about capitalizing the text... Also sorry for taking more time than usual on this chapter! I wanted to include art!

The three of them made their way slowly to the gym in near silence, as if they were being weighed down by the suddenly oppressive atmosphere. Shuichi and Rantaro both looked occupied with their own thoughts as they walked, and Maki couldn’t blame them.

When they had left the caged garden, Maki had noticed that Himiko had vacated the spot that they had met her in at some point, and was now presumably headed to the gym as well. Apparently, it was located in the back section of the school, separated by the gate that she’s failed to try earlier, according to Shuichi. A quick look at the newly activated map feature of the Monopad certainly seemed to confirm that.

“…Come on, it’ll be fine!” Maki could make out a bubbly voice up ahead from she was, and was almost certain that it would turn out to be a certain blonde tennis pro, despite not being overly familiar with her voice yet. They ascended the stairs to get back to the courtyard in front of the dorms. Sure enough, it turned out to be Kaede, seemingly trying to ease the worries of a nervous Tsumugi. “Nothing bad is gonna happen just from going, I promise!”

The two of them were stopped on the path to the school building for the moment. Tsumugi swept her chin-length hair behind her ear, her blue eyes on the ground. “How do you know that…?” she asked Kaede quietly. “It might be a trap, and we’d be walking right into it…”

Kaede scrunched up her face, playfully displeased. She seemed to be trying to think of a way to convince Tsumugi. “That can’t be… because…” She shifted her eyes, looking for inspiration, then seemed to take notice of the three people walking towards them. “Oh hey, you guys! Help me convince Tsumugi here!” She waved happily, all traces of worry gone. She seemed to bounce a bit impatiently as they approached.

“Of why we need to go to the gym right?” Shuichi spoke up to confirm, and Kaede bobbed her head in a nod. He gave them a trying smile. “Well, we need to go because we’ll finally find out why we’re here, right? Won’t that help us figure out what we should be doing?”

Tsumugi just shook her head slowly, but finally looked up to meet their eyes. “It’s gotta be a trap, there’s no way that they have good intentions… We shouldn’t be listening to them,” she insisted.

Maki stopped as well and glanced between the three of them. She spoke bluntly to them. “We’re _already_ trapped. I doubt that going will make anything worse. And besides…” She could tell that she wasn’t about to make anyone feel better, but this at least would probably get them moving. And it was a definite possibility… “I’m more worried about what will happen if we don’t show up. Giving them a reason to resort to more extreme measures to get us to comply is something we should avoid, for now. Shuichi’s right, we need more information.”

Both Kaede and Shuichi froze a bit, looking worried not only about what Maki had just said, but also how Tsumugi would take it. Now was definitely a bad time for a panic attack after all, especially if what Maki had said turned out to be true.

Instead, Tsumugi nodded seriously and brought her hand to her chin in thought. She stayed silent for a moment, before seeming to come to a decision. “Alright, I’ll… I’ll go.”

Kaede looked elated. “That’s great! Seriously though, you don’t need to worry so much! It’s gonna be fine, no doubt!” Tsumugi looked skeptical of that, but nodded again anyways, sighing.

Beside her, Shuichi’s shoulders suddenly jumped. “Ah, wait! Not again…” Without warning he, spun around to face the school, causing Maki to turn and look as well. “Rantaro, wait up!”

While the two of them had stopped to talk to Kaede and Tsumugi, Rantaro had either not bothered stopping or had gotten bored of waiting for them and was now a great deal away from them. Not wanting to be left behind for a second time, Shuichi hurried after him with a groan.

“I, uh, suppose we should get going too, huh?” Kaede awkwardly chuckled. “Everyone else is probably there already!”

Kaede and Tsumugi followed after the two boys, and Maki herself didn’t bother rushing to catch up. She was fine with being behind them. They’d be in the same place soon enough, anyway.

One after another, each person made their way through the doors and into the school, Maki last of all. Going inside brought a sharp contrast in brightness. Maki had almost missed seeing it, and it seemed that the others before her actually had, but she managed to spot the small dark figure of Ryoma, standing to the side of the entryway just inside the door. The only spot of bright color was the red design on the front of his hat, after all.

“You haven’t gone to the gym yet?” Maki asks him, curious as to why he was staying behind.

Ryoma’s large black eyes flicked over her, but Maki couldn’t begin to imagine what he was thinking. “Just delaying, I guess. I was watching the others go first.”

“I think I was the last person who was outside… or at least I didn’t see anyone else out there while I walked back,” Maki supplied. “So it’s probably now or never.”

Ryoma hummed and inclined his head in a curt nod. “I don’t know about you, but I don’t trust this at all.” He turned to continue on, and in a serious voice added, “I have a _really_ bad feeling.”

_Me_ _too_ , Maki thought to herself. She took a breath to collect herself and continued onwards.

The gate to the area holding the gym was a strangely pink in color, but otherwise unremarkable. Maki wondered whether its point was to potentially lock them out of the area if need be. She couldn’t find much other point to it. The hall beyond was equally as grassy and plant covered as the rest of the school. Strangely she didn’t see Ryoma walking ahead of her despite her being certain that she hadn’t given him that big of a head start. The corridor took some twists and turns, and she passed a black and white checked door that she made sure to try opening. It was locked.

Maki noticed Miu standing just outside where the Monopad said the gym would be. Her eyes shot up, wide, from where they had been staring at the ground.

“Miu, you haven’t gone in yet?” Maki asked. _We_ _should_ _be_ _the_ _last_ _ones_ …

“W-what’s it to you, b-bitch face?” She wrung her hands nervously as she spoke. Despite the vulgar wording, her tone was somewhat meek as she stuttered out the response.

“Are you scared to go in?”

Miu noticeably flinched, but then seemed to catch herself a moment later with an overdramatic exhale. She haughtily turned away, crossing her arms. “The only fuckin’ thing I’m scared of is having to share airspace with you piss-brained whiners, got it?”

_Well_ _that’s_ _an_ _obvious_ _lie_. Rather than calling her out on it, it seemed like a better idea to actually get her moving for now. “Oh yeah? So you _aren’t_ scared to walk through that door?”

“N-No, I just said-“

“Great, then prove it and get moving.”

Miu was silent for a moment, and Maki could see her shoulders shaking. She began to wonder if perhaps she had taken it too far to be helpful in this situation, but Miu finally reacted. “Fine! But a half-baked skank like you shouldn’t be telling _me_ what to do!”

With that, she strutted confidently over to the gym door and forcefully yanked it open. She hesitated for briefly before slinking inside, looking far less confident than she had a moment ago. Maki followed just behind her.

The gym looked like one you could find in any normal school. Well, minus the overgrowth, of course. Entire trees and lush bushes seemed to have sprouted from the corners of the room, and grass had spread out over what should have been solid flooring. The other students were all waiting within among uneasy murmurs.

“Wow, it’s pretty incredible seeing 16 Ultimates gathered in the same place,” Kaito spoke up suddenly, clearly indicating that he was addressing everyone in the room. “It’s pretty amazing that they’d even be able to find all of us…”

“I think the word you should be using is _alarming_ , not amazing,” Korekiyo answered from the corner where he stood on the other side of the room, and Maki could hear the frown in his voice.

“This is, uh, definitely _not_ the kind of vanishing trick I usually pull,” said a sheepish looking Tenko. “And waking up trapped in weird places isn’t normally how I do escape magic either!”

“Nyeh, I wanna go back outside…” mumbled Himiko. “I didn’t find any bugs yet…”

“Hey come on, I’m sure we won’t be kept here for too long,” Kaede reassured. “Um, both here in the gym and here in the Academy, I guess… Either way, we just need to find out what’s going on!”

“Do you really think those insufferable abominations will provide us with any information of use?” Kirumi questioned her, voice firm.

“Gonta thinks we should probably listen just in case.” Many people nodded at that.

“Stiiilll, it’s really boring having to wait around! I’ll probably kill someone out of boredom…” Kokichi cried dramatically with a pout.

“Y-you don’t mean that, right?” Keebo asked nervously, bringing a hand up in a motion that might have been tucking his hair behind his ears if it weren’t for the fact that they seemed either nonexistent or covered in what looked like headphones protruding from his head.

Kokichi glanced over at him, just now seeming to notice him for the first time. His eyes lit up childishly. “Waaaaait a sec, hold the phone, are you a robot?! How come you didn’t tell me!”

Keebo looked startled. “I-I don’t think we’ve had the chance to introduce ourselves, so I haven’t-“

“Ugh, will you quit it with that crap?” Miu groaned from beside Maki, her arms crossed. “The little weeb is just playing dress up, there’s no way he’s actually a frickin’ robot…”

Keebo spun around to face her, looking annoyed. “And I’ve already told _you_ that that’s not what I’m-“

“Would you guys just shut up,” Rantaro interrupted. “Right now we should be figuring out what’s going-“

“W-wait! I think I can hear something!” shouted Tsumugi, getting all of their attention.

“Oh! Gonta can hear it too! Something large? No, more that one…”

“Huh? You hear something?” Angie tilted her head to the side, pensive. “Mmm yes, Atua can hear it too… Our fate is about to change, the moment drawing ever closer…”

“D-Don’t say something so creepy!” Tenko yelled. “What are you guys hearing!?”

Before long, however, the rest of them could hear it too. Increasingly loud metallic thuds, the sound of something large and mechanical, until all at once-

Screams filled the room as 5 large mechs suddenly appeared, surrounding them. Their hulking forms towered over all of them menacingly, blocking their escape.

“Yoo-hoo! Rise and shine, ursine!” Multiple voices yelled. _Are_ _they…?_

“Kyaha~! I knew we’d get to surprise them! See, look at their faces! They’re screaming in terror~!”

“Ugh, don’t be proud of that…”

“W-what are these things?” gasped Tsumugi. Maki could see the sweat on her forehead, but it looked like she was trying to force herself to remain rational. “Are there people piloting them in there…?”

“Judging by their voices and color schemes, they’re obviously the Monokubs,” Kirumi observed.

“THESE-ARE-THE-EXISALS! THEY-ARE-HIGHLY-MOBILE-AND-BIPEDAL-WEAPONS-SYSTEMS” said a more robotic voice from the red mech. “AT-LEAST, I-THINK-THEY-ARE…”

“Weapons!? Fuck, I knew this was a trap,” squealed Miu. “I never should have listened to you shit-for-brains-“

“So what do you want?” Amidst the chaos, a calm voice rang out, and Rantaro stepped forwards towards the Exisals.

“Ah, wait! Rantaro, be careful!” Shuichi called out. “We don’t know what those things are capable of!”

Rantaro ignored his warning and came to a stop right in front of them. “You have to want something from us. That’s why you’re using a tangible threat of force right now; you want something more than just our imprisonment. So, what is it? What are your demands?”

“Well aren’t you a sharp one…”

“Eeeeeh he just guessed what we’re doing! What should we tell them? Is it too soon??”

“Well, we’re close enough anyway… I say we just go for it!”

“Ah~! I can’t wait to see the looks on their faces! Who’s gonna say it? Should I? Can I?”

“Why don’t we just do it together, huh? That seems fair enough…”

“THE-REASON-YOU-BASTARDS-ARE-HERE…”

“…Is to play a game~! And that game is…”

There was a moment of collective silence as the five Exisals shot glances at each other in preparation, before announcing together,

“A Killing Game!”

The entire group of students seemed to freeze at the declaration.

“A _what_?” Kaito said in disbelief. “You aren’t really expecting us to-“

“Puhuhuhu! You’d better believe you’ll all be participating!” An as of yet unfamiliar voice rang out, echoing from all directions. Maki could feel every hair on her body standing on end.

In an instant, all of the Monokubs popped out of their Exisals and gathered on the gym’s stage. The lights in the gym suddenly went out for a moment, before a spotlight lit up a black and white bear popping up into the air from the stage’s podium and gliding down to it on wings that fell off a moment later.

“Hey you bastards! It’s me, your friendly neighborhood Monokuma, Headmaster of the Ultimate Academy for Gifted Juveniles, here to bring you the latest rendition of our much-beloved franchise!”

“Your… what?” Maki herself asked, thoroughly confused and more than a little on edge.

“Anyway, you’re all definitely going to be playing the killing game. Look around! There’s no way for you to defy us when my cute little children are in control of the Exisals, and there’s no way for you to escape and call for help!”

“N-no…! Nononono…” Miu looked about on the verge of breaking down in tears.

“There’s… no way we’re going to kill each other!” Kaede yelled at the top of her lungs.

“Oh, don’t say that! It’ll be fun!” The demonic bear continued with sick glee. “Can’t you feel the tension mounting, pushing each of you further and further towards murder?”

“Ah, no fair! I left all my murder tools at home!” said Kokichi mockingly.

“Don’t even joke about that!” Tenko yelled.

“The tension just keeps going up!” Monokuma laughed. “Anyways, I’ve set up a whoooole list of rules for you bastards to follow, listed right there in your Monopads! Be sure to read over them! I’d _hate_ for someone to start the killing without knowing about the class trial, so make sure you know what you’re getting into! This is a murder _mystery_ game, after all, so stick with the right genre!”

“The genre isn’t the problem,” Miu wailed.

“I think that’s about all the information you need for now! I say it’s always better to let them stew in it before you lay it on too thick! Just know that you’re all enemies now, all potential victims and killers! It would be smart to kill someone else before someone _else_ kills _you_ , got it?” Monokuma finished up. “Happy killing everyone! Puhuhuhu!”

As Monokuma laughed, the kubs joined in as well, all of them mocking them uproariously. The initial shock of the situation began to wear off as reality settled in. They were trapped by these psychotic abominations, being forced to play a twisted and deadly _game_ for their amusement. Emotions swelled within Maki as she took a shuddering breath. She clenched her fists as she stared them down from the back of the room, looking over the heads of her fellow captives and now fellow killing game participants. They were being treated like toys, their lives dangling loosely at the whims of an enemy they didn’t have the strength to defy.

Never in her life had Maki Harukawa been so unbelievably **angry**.

  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yaaaaay the game proper is starting now~! I tried to make sure I didn't ignore anyone this chapter completely since I'm still trying to establish characterizations. 
> 
> You may have noticed something strange in my portrayal of the monokubs... That's intentional. I didn't go over it in detail here because enough stuff was already happening, but I'll definitely cover that a bit later. I didn't really want to deal with them for the moment. That said, I still want them in this fic so I'll definitely get around to it. I should probably add them to the tags...
> 
> Also, art! I drew/painted my Ultimate Astronaut Maki design! So far in this fic I haven't really talked about what it is she's wearing, so there you go! It's also on my Tumblr https://erin-the-awesome.tumblr.com And feel free to talk to me there too (I'm lonely lol) Please excuse the fact that I just take photos of my art with my phone hah...
> 
> Anyways, place your bets now for who's gonna die and who's gonna kill! Too soon, you claim? naaaaaawww


	8. Prisoner's Dilemma

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Edit: Thanks for 2000 hits and 100 Kudos! And all your comments as well, gosh, feedback makes me really happy!

Soon after the killing game’s announcement, Monokuma and the Monokubs disappeared into oblivion, the later taking the Exisals out with them. Even in the absence of the bears' harrowing laughter, no one dared to speak in the moments following. Maki was sure that it likely hadn’t truly set in for many of them yet. It was too surreal. Even for those who could comprehend it, the pressure of this reality was stifling. 

A killing game. 

They were being held captive here with possibly quite literal guns to their heads depending on just what weaponry the Exisal threat was equipped with. Even without that, their raw strength and size was obvious. They were trapped both by a cage and a threat of harm for disobeying.

“Like _hell_ are we gonna do what that thing says!” Came a sudden yell from the side of the room, startling most of them to turn and look who had spoken. Kaito gestured passionately as he spoke. “None of us are going to _kill_ anyone, so we’re just gonna have to work together. There’s gotta be something else we can do to get outta this-”

An alarm chimed from Maki’s pocket, interrupting Kaito, and she could hear the same sound coming from each of the others as well. She pulled out her Monopad. A new tab had become functional, titled “Regulations.” The silence returned as each person read the killing game rules over.

1\. Students must live at the academy for the remainder of their foreseeable future.  
2\. Once a murder takes place, all surviving students must participate in a class trial.  
3\. If the blackened is exposed during the class trial and voted as the culprit, they alone will be executed.  
4\. If the blackened is not exposed, all other remaining students will be executed.  
5\. If the blackened survives the class trial, they will graduate and re-enter the outside world.  
6\. The killing game and class trials will continue until only two surviving students remain.  
7\. “Nighttime” is from 10 p.m. to 8 a.m. The dining hall and gymnasium are off-limits at night.  
8\. Violence toward Monokuma, the headmaster of the Ultimate Academy, is strictly prohibited.  
9\. Neither Monokuma or the Mastermind may directly commit a murder.  
10\. Your Monopads are very important items. Please do not damage them.  
11\. The body discovery announcement will play when three or more students discover a body.  
12\. With minimal restrictions, you are free to explore the campus at your discretion.  
13\. Students who violate these rules will be immediately exterminated by the Exisals.  
14\. The headmaster may add new rules to this list at any time.

Each rule was illustrated with colorfully animated representations of what was being said. Maki glared at them. 

“You’ve… gotta be kidding me…” She heard Kaede mutter a few paces away from her.

“So these are the rules of this game, huh?” Ryoma’s deep voice wondered. “They’re pretty detailed.”

“So they truly expect us to follow through with this asinine proposal,” Kirumi spoke, her tone clearly disgusted. She was holding her Monopad delicately with one of her gloved hands as if it were both something fragile and a piece of filth. Her other hand covered her mouth.

“E-Even with stupid rules like these, I’m telling you, no one here’s gonna listen to that bear’s crap!” Kaito reaffirmed, but Maki could hear the doubt start to creep its way into his voice.

Rantaro didn’t look like he agreed. “We don’t know that,” he stated calmly, but his face showed calculating thought. “We have no way of knowing if any among us will choose to take these rules seriously. And that paranoia is what may cause someone to in the first place…”

“What! Don’t tell me _you’re_ considering-“ Tenko began to shout but was cut off.

“Of course not. And your reaction right now proves my point. Fear of betrayal is going to be the biggest motivator in this situation. This is a prisoners dilemma.”

Tenko blinked at him, her previous shock replaced with confusion. “A… prisoner’s dilemma? You mean because we’re trapped here?”

Rantaro crossed his arms. “No, a prisoner’s dilemma is a concept in game theory where two, or sixteen in our case, people whose best interest would normally be to cooperate instead are put in a position where they likely won’t because of some personal advantage they would gain by betraying the other, and something of greater value they would lose by being betrayed themselves.”

Beside Tenko, Angie tilted her entire body to the side curiously. “I don’t get it at all!”

“Oh, I’m familiar with the concept!” exclaimed Keebo, almost excitedly despite their situation. He raised a finger as he spoke. “The traditional idea has two criminals within the same group who have been captured by law enforcement, each separated in different rooms for questioning and offered the same deal. They can either stay silent about the details of their crimes, or they can sell out the other person. If both are to stay silent, they will likely be given a lesser sentence of one year in prison because the police don’t have enough information to convict them of something greater. If one is to sell out the other, however, that person who cooperated will be set free, and the other person who did not cooperate with the questioning will be given a much greater sentence, say five years. And finally, if both are to sell out each other, they will be given a medium sentence of perhaps 3 years, somewhere between the two other outcomes. Obviously, the most ideal outcome objectively for them is to both remain silent so they both serve the lesser sentence. They can likely even be out sooner than a year for good behavior after all. But the personal reward of possibly being set free immediately can entice them into choosing to betray. An even bigger motivator would be the knowledge that the other person has also been given this deal, and research has shown participants are more likely to betray with this knowledge available to them. Their fear of betrayal and serving the greatest sentence will commonly cause they themselves to choose to betray. The prisoner’s dilemma was originally developed by-“

“Yes, thank you, just the concept is fine,” the green-haired detective cut back in. “My point is that our own situation is a clear iteration of this. In this case, our ‘staying silent’ is the refusal to participate in this killing game. Clearly, it’s best for _all of us_ if no one dies. We either live here indefinitely, or manage to find a way to escape after a period of time. However, the temptation to betray, to kill, is set both because of the personal reward of being set free through getting away with murder and because it will be feared that you will receive the harshest punishment. That is, being executed once someone _else_ gets away with murder.”

“T-That’s… Are you saying it’s hopeless…?” Kaede looked alarmed. “That it’s inevitable for someone to betray us under that pressure…? That can’t be!”

Rantaro shook his head. “No, I’m just telling us to be aware of the possibility. This isn’t an exact replica of the study after all. We have the ability to converse with each other, for one. So for you all to begin forming bonds with each other will be invaluable to preventing the worst-case scenario, both because emotional attachments will dissuade potential culprits, and because the act of keeping an eye on each other will make getting away with a crime that much more difficult for you in the first place.”

There were murmurs of agreement spread throughout the gym. What he was saying made sense, but Maki couldn’t help but notice that his wording oddly didn’t include himself as a part of them. She shook it off as he continued.

“If we’re aware not only of the dangers, as we would be anyways I imagine, but of the inner workings of the game and the intent behind it, I think it’ll be a lot easier to combat it. That said, you shouldn’t get complacent. Ignoring the possibility of betrayal will only make it easier for someone to do so should the person desire to.”

“Oh? And what makes you qualified to lead us, huh?” A sly voice piped up. Kokichi was standing in a way that seemed like he was leaning back on a wall despite being far from the edge of the room. His hands were thrown lazily behind his head and one of his legs crossed over the other in a relaxed pose. “Why should we bother listening to you, huh?”

“Well, he is the Ultimate Detective, Gonta supposes…” answered Gonta. “We should at least listen to what he thinks, right?”

“Ooooh, a _detective_ huh?” Kokichi sounded more amused than impressed. “Fine, fine! Ok Mr. Big-Shot-Detective, lay it on us. You’ve probably solved all of this already, _right_ …?”

“H-hey! You can’t expect him to know immediately,” Shuichi tried to argue for him. “We’ve… hardly even gotten here! All we have to go one so far is… the rules and what Monokuma said, I guess.”

Rantaro wasn’t flustered. “I need more information. If this is truly expected to be a killing game, and if we were all kidnapped from our daily lives with no memory of the event occurring, that doesn’t bode well for the sort of power and resources an organization with ill intents would have to possess to pull it off.”

“Then what… should we be doing about that?” Tsumugi asked softly. “What _can_ we do? What would help us?”

“I’d like for you to all cooperate in a thorough investigation of the Ultimate Academy.” Rantaro swept his eyes over the rest of them. “I could do it myself, but allowing for a greater number of participants might prove to be helpful in quickening the process. Also, if you’d be so kind as to organize yourselves into groups of three, we can split where each group can investigate, and make my personal investigation much easier.”

“Organize ourselves in groups of three?” Angie wondered curiously. “How come?”

“We’d be able to cover most of the areas of interest adequately with this method, I’d imagine. And it would leave us less vulnerable to potential harm,” mused Kirumi. “If someone were to attempt a murder, it would be difficult with two others watching them. And if we were to make the groups randomized, it would nullify the chances of two in a group corroborating together.”

“Woah, woah, woah, there’s not gonna be any murder here! Even if we need to be aware of the possibility or whatever, is anyone really gonna try something _now_ before we’ve even tried all we could to resolve this all peacefully?” Kaito tried. “And what you were saying before Rantaro, I get where you’re coming from but making people more paranoid doesn’t seem helpful right now. Wording is important here…”

“Wow, are you _really_ that naïve? Thinking that no one’s gonna betray us is pretty _dumb_ , you know. We should totally be watching each other's backs!” Kokichi taunted. “Then again, I don’t really wanna spend literally the rest of my life here handcuffed to two of you losers! I think I probably _would_ kill someone then, if I didn’t die of boredom first!”

“ _Please_ stop implicating yourself as a willing murderer, Kokichi,” said Korekiyo tiredly, and Maki had to wonder just what the purple-haired imp had been saying to him prior to this when they were alone. “I’d rather hope you’re lying about that.”

“Who can say~! I am a liar after all,” Kokichi replied with a wink.

“No way, a lying cunt claiming he’s a liar? I don’t trust it for a fucking second!” Miu exclaimed pointing dramatically. “You may have everyone else here fooled, but I won’t fall for it!!”

“ _Anyways_ ,” Maki herself said in an attempt to get them back on topic, “this arrangement doesn’t have to be permanent. We can agree to work together directly for the time being, at the least.”

“Yes, thank you. So if you’ll all agree to cooperate…?” Rantaro paused, waiting for others to answer. After various nods and utterances of agreement with varying degrees of enthusiasm, he continued by asking everyone to exchange any information they had already learned about certain areas, and only a few things were brought up as significant. 

Rantaro cleared his throat to quiet them down again. “Alright then, there are five areas of interest, and I agree with Kirumi that random assignment would be best, so I’ll do it for you.”

“And you’re gonna, what, count us off?” Kokichi said joking. Apparently, he was.

After doing just that, the groups and locations they would be investigating were divided up. It was decided that the warehouse would constitute its own group assignment, this being Tenko, Kirumi, and Miu. The remainder of the first floor and basement area was assigned to Kaede, Ryoma, and Korekiyo. Maki would be in a group with Angie and Keebo, and would be investigating the second floor of the school building. As for the outdoors, Tsumugi, Kaito, and Himiko would be checking the perimeter and lower portion while Shuichi, Gonta, and Kokichi would be assigned to the upper portion of the outside and the buildings therein.

“Nyeh… this sounds like a pain…” Himiko mumbled shuffling past Maki to join her group. “At least I can look for bugs again…”

“Just make sure you stick with us, ok Himiko?” Tsumugi smiled encouragingly, and Maki heard Kaito bark something in enthusiastic agreement.

She, Keebo and Angie moved closer to each other in preparation as well. When all groups were assembled, Kaede blinked from beside Ryoma and Korekiyo and spoke up. “Wait… Which group are you going to be a part of, Rantaro?”

“Ah, yes,” Rantaro began walking to stand between them all and the doors. “As I mentioned before, I’ll be conducting my own investigation, meaning I’ll be by myself.”

“Wait, what? Why the fuck don’t you have to have someone breathing down your ass!?” Miu protested.

“I don’t think that’s a phrase…” Tsumugi muttered.

“Considering that I’m the detective among us, a _private detective_ , it would be easiest for me to work by myself. That said, I’ll be checking in with each of your groups as you investigate. So really, you could also say that I’m in all of your groups.” With that, Rantaro left swiftly left the room. 

Out of the corner of her eye, Maki could see Shuichi move to follow him. She turned to catch his arm as he tried to slip by. “Just leave him be. It’s fine if one person goes alone, but two would defeat the point.”

“That’s…” Shuichi looked like he wanted to dispute what she’d said, but in the end he reluctantly agreed with a sigh. 

“What wrong Shuichi?” asked a concerned-sounding Gonta.

“It’s nothing. I’m… sure Rantaro will be fine,” Shuichi still sounded a bit hesitant, but he took a breath to strengthen his resolve. “We’ll… be seeing him soon enough if he’s really gonna be walking around.”

“Ooooh~! Does Shuichi already miss his boyfriend~?” Kokichi sang teasingly, poking his head out from behind Gonta’s large form.

“W-what?” Shuichi sputtered, clearly not having expected that sort of response. “No I- What? What gave you _that_ impression??”

“Oh I see, I see, you haven’t hooked up yet~! But it’s obvious that you’re hanging around him like a lost puppy!” Kokichi grinned, clearly enjoying making Shuichi embarrassed. 

“L-let’s just talk about something else. Or, um, let’s get going actually!” Shuichi turned away from them as he spoke, and Maki got the feeling that it was because he didn’t want them to see his expression. “It looks like Kaede’s group already headed out, so…”

“Ah man, I don’t wanna have to check the same areas, _again_ …” Kokichi whined, but started walking with them anyways.

“Can I ask what that was about?” Keebo said from behind Maki, and she pivoted to face her own group. Keebo and Angie were both looking at her curiously.

“Nothing important. We should get going too,” was her answer. There wasn’t much point in wasting time here. “Let’s get going too.”

“Yes, yes! Let’s figure out this mysterious mystery~!” Angie cheered. “Atua will help us too~!”

And with that, they set off.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heya! In canon when Rantaro brings up the prisoner's dilemma, I thought it was a bit odd how he only did like, once the first motive was given, right? But the game was that from the start, so... 
> 
> ALSO! The killing game rules! I changed them in a couple places very slightly! The only really significant change was the statement that the Mastermind can’t commit a murder!
> 
> Also hey! We got fanart!?! Of my Magician Tenko! Check it out~! https://dangan-kin-aid.tumblr.com/post/170261504018/not-kin-related-but-ive-taken-a-liking-to


	9. Searching the School

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For the record, the layout of the school is supposed to be the same as in canon.

_It’s pretty convenient that I’d get the one place I haven’t been,_ Maki thought to herself as she climbed the stairs to the second floor. Not that it truly mattered, she supposed. It was extremely doubtful that the three of them would find anything that was truly helpful to them here, seeing as to how strangely small the area appeared on the Monopad’s map. It was by far the smallest area that anyone had to cover.

But that was strange, wasn’t it? From down below, they could _clearly see_ that there was more to the second floor than seemed to be available. The entrance hall’s clearing showed that there was a second walkway around the top of it, at the very least, and from what she remembered from the outside, it didn’t seem as though only half of the building had an upper story. 

And yet, there wasn’t a way to access it. Even if the school was still under construction, wouldn’t there still be an entrance that was simply blocked off? Would a ladder be supplied to them at some point? Perhaps these circumstances were the real mystery to investigate on this floor, more than the two classrooms labeled B and C. 

Keebo and Angie chatted amicably with each other as Maki tried the door to the Ultimate Pianist’s Lab, confirming what Shuichi had said about it still being locked. Despite that, Maki couldn’t see a visible keyhole or other locking mechanism at all from this side. _Odd._

“So...” Keebo addressed her, breaking away from whatever he and Angie had been talking about. “Um… What exactly are we supposed to be looking for here? It seems like it would be difficult to conduct an investigation without a clear goal in mind.”

“Atua was also wondering this! Even He cannot exercise His divine powers of knowledge blindly,” Angie agreed, nodding sagely.

“Let’s just comb over the classrooms first. It’s pretty impossible for our group to find an exit, given the location, but we still might find… _something_ of relevance to who’s keeping us here,” Maki told them. “And even if we don’t, we can still make certain of what tools we have at our disposal here.”

That explanation seemed good enough for the both of them, so they headed into one of two classrooms to begin their search. It seemed much the same as the one downstairs by the stairs to the basement, though it’s coloring was different. The LCD screen of the “chalkboard” was a glowing green color that gave an eerie feeling. Vines hung down from the exposed pipes of the ceiling, along with what seemed to be electrical wires.

The three of them tried everything they could think of to investigate; checking the desks, floorboards, lockers, windows, walls. They couldn’t seem to find anything interesting beyond some strange coins with Monokuma’s cartoonish face in a few of the desk. No matter what they tried they couldn’t seem to get the screen of the board or the standard monitor above it to change, either. _There must be some way…_

“Keebo, you’re a robot, right? Powered by electricity?” Maki started by asking, though with how he had been bragging about it previously, she was sure of what his answer would be.

“Ah, yes! I’m the very top of the line of robots, in fact! My human AI is revolutionary,” Keebo happily replied.

“Do you have any function that could connect to the screens here?”

Keebo looked like he wanted to say something instinctively but then stopped and thought for a moment, frowning. “Maybe… I doubt I would be able to truly _connect_ to them, that’s definitely beyond my basic abilities if they aren’t set to respond to me in the first place, but I might be able to…” 

After muttering that, he turned towards the green display and stared, seeming to concentrate. His electric blue eyes seemed to glow brighter than they had been before, and Maki could swear she could feel electricity in the air crackling before spiking in intensity. Maki wasn’t sure if it was her imagination, but the electronic board seemed to wobble slightly from its usual downward scrolling pattern, but otherwise remained unchanged. 

“My apologies,” Keebo said as his eyes and the room’s atmosphere returned to normal. “It appears that I wasn’t able to influence it in any meaningful fashion…”

Maki gave him a nod of acceptance. “Thank you for trying, Keebo.”

“You are quite welcome! …However, I would like to request that I not try that on more than is necessary, seeing as it does eat up quite a large chunk of my electricity… I’m… feeling quite tired, after that.” Keebo seemed to sway slightly as he spoke. “I’ll need to change again, somewhat soon, but ah… I hope you don’t mind but I would prefer to do that in private.”

“Of course.” Even if the dorms weren’t opened yet, Kokichi could probably be coerced into opening Keebo’s room for him as he had done for Shuichi and presumably his own. “You can sit down for now, while we finish up.”

“I… thank you,” Keebo set himself down gently in a desk chair. 

Curiously, Angie had remained entirely silent over the course of the events, eyeing both of them with a piercing look that Maki could only describe as an intense focus. When Keebo had finally seated himself in the chair, she relaxed her gaze, seeming to come to a decision. 

“Atua will be sure to lend you his divine strength for your troubles,” she declared while nodding, causing her twin hair buns to bounce slightly with her, apparently satisfied with the situation.

Despite saying that the two of them would finish checking the room, there wasn’t much left to check for the moment. Unless they were prepared to completely dismantle the room it didn’t seem to be of any more help to them. While being careful to help Keebo to the next room, who swore he was feeling better and didn’t need it, they resumed their investigation.

This classroom didn’t seem terribly different from the others, despite the mountain of desks stacked in it. 

“What should we do with these desks?” Angie wondered aloud. “We would not have enough space to take them from their tower…”

“Just check the ones you can reach for now. If we see a reason to we can take them all out of the room.” Maki doubted it would come to that, however.

The room felt a little off in comparison to the other, probably because of the surplus of desks, but ultimately it didn’t seem out of the ordinary. Still, there were a lot of desks to go through, even if they were just counting the ones on the edge of the stack. Angie began humming softly as she checked her portion.

“Why do you think we were brought here?” Keebo contemplated, sounding serious, from where he was leaning against the wall in the corner watching them. “I mean, not just ‘to play the killing game’ but… Why would anyone want that in the first place.”

Maki sighed. “Who knows… I’d say some sort of malice or grudge against us, or the Ultimate Initiative, but that’s only a circumstantially based hypothesis. The fact that we have well-stocked facilities in the first place given that is a bit of a mystery.”

“I suppose theories are all we have for now,” Keebo accepted.

“There was one thing mentioned in the rules that could give us a clue, I think!” Angie input. “The rules mentioned a ‘Mastermind.’ What do you think that means?”

Maki paused in her desk-checking and took out her Monopad to confirm the wording Angie was referring too. Sure enough, the ninth rule in the listing read _Neither Monokuma or the Mastermind may directly commit a murder._ “Yeah that… does seem to imply that there’s a singular Mastermind. And one that might be in a position to commit a murder.”

Keebo seemed alarmed by that. “Does… that mean that the mastermind, the person who's making us do this, is somewhere in this school…?”

“Maybe,” was all Maki could give. “It could also be a red herring to put us on edge. Or it could even just be an assurance that such a thing won’t happen because it _can’t_ , but… personally, I’d say the wording is a bit too specific for there to not be a ‘Mastermind’ at all. In any case, I suppose that’s why checking everywhere isn’t a waste of time even if there isn’t an exit; in case there is someone here that we can locate.”

They didn’t end up finding much in that classroom either, despite checking everywhere they could think to. Outside of the classrooms in the hallway was much the same. There was a peculiar statue of a dragon, but no matter how odd it looked, they couldn’t find anything of significance to it. The walls all seemed solid, and sifting through the grass around the hallway didn’t reveal anything either. 

“Our area was so small!” Angie noted once they had done all they could. “Is it really ok that this is all we had to check?”

“We can always go see if another group needs help,” reasoned Maki. Still, it _was_ rather strange that Rantaro wanted an entire group just for this small section if he hadn’t seen anything worth investigating when he was up here. Was there really no way to get to that other section above the entrance? And was there even anything up there? “Let’s just go back downstairs for now.”

With nothing else to do for the moment, they decided to do just that. Before they even have a chance to completely stairs, however, a voice yelled to grab their attention.

“Oh, hey you guys!” Called the voice that Maki was getting better at recognizing as Kaede. She ran up to them from where she had been standing outside the bathrooms. “Are you already done with your area?”

“It seems that way,” Keebo answered her, then tilted his head questioningly. “How is your group doing? And, where are they?”

Kaede seemed to remember whatever it was she had been doing and brought her hands together excitedly. “Oh, that’s right, I was going to see if I could find Rantaro! We found something!”

“You found something?” Maki repeated, a feeling of intrigue growing in her chest.

“Yeah, in the girl's bathroom,” Kaede chirped happily. “I almost didn’t find it, but on my second pass through I ended up checking the utility closet supplies to see if anything there was suspicious! I didn’t _think_ there would be, but like, just in case, you know? I’d already checked everything else in the room really thoroughly _and I even accidentally broke one of the soap dispensers whoops,_ anyways I leaned on the back wall by accident and the wall opened up!”

Maki was pretty sure that Kaede hadn’t breathed once during that. _A secret passage…_

“I mean, I don’t know how helpful it’ll be since it’s… uh… Here I’ll just show you!” Kaede had apparently given up trying to explain as she guided them all to the pink girl's bathroom door. As she opened the door for them, Maki could see Korekiyo and Ryoma already standing silently inside, apparently waiting for Kaede’s return. “Don’t worry, I gave them permission to be in here _oh and you too Keebo!_ because it’s not like anyone’s using it right now, right? Oh, and if either of you need to, I’ll make them leave, ok?”

“That’s fine,” Maki said assured dismissively as she moved past her and into the bathroom. The door to the utility closet was open, and beyond it…

“It’s… blocked by rubble?” Keebo blinked, surprised. 

Sure enough, the space beyond where the back wall of the closet would have been had opened up to reveal what seemed to be a space behind it. However, after only a foot in, the space was entirely blocked by huge chunks of concrete and metal wedged firmly within it. 

“We’ve already tried moving it,” Ryoma spoke up. “Didn’t budge at all. Pushing, pulling, nothing.”

“Is it really a secret passage?” Angie wondered. “How did it collapse in the first place?”

“It doesn’t look like any of the surrounding school has been affected by whatever caused this cave in,” Keebo observed. Another mystery.

“Would you mind moving so I can take a look?” said a voice from the entryway, startling most of them. Rantaro stepped past a bewildered Keebo and into the room.

“Oh wow, great timing! I was just trying to go find you!” Kaede exclaimed as Rantaro entered the utility closet to check the rock for himself, couching.

“Yeah, I could hear you talking from the basement stairs. You weren’t exactly being quiet,” Rantaro replied while still facing away from them. He ran a gloved hand down some of the creases between rock and metal. Maki could practically feel him frown.

Kaede flushed, embarrassed. “Ah, sorry… Um, so that’s where you were?”

Rantaro hummed flatly in agreement and straightened back up. “Thank you for showing this to me. Have you already checked to see if the boy's bathroom had something similar?”

Korekiyo answered him while Kaede seemed to preen a bit, pleased. “We checked it already, but we didn’t find anything of note. None of the walls moved like this one's did.”

Rantaro nodded and stepped fully away from the closet. “And nothing else was of note?” he asked, addressing everyone in the room.

Neither group had found much else important, other than that the strange coins seemed to be a constant throughout the school and that the kitchen was well stocked with food and cooking equipment.

“Our group is pretty finished. There’s not much more we can really do at the moment.” 

“We’ve about finished the first floor, so all we have are the rooms in the basement-“ Kaede tried to respond, but was cut off by Rantaro.

“Checking the library won’t be necessary. I’ve already searched it thoroughly, so don’t waste your time.”

“Oh, ok…” She looked a bit deflated at that. “Um… So after we check the rest of the basement then, I was thinking we’d circle back to the gym last. Why don’t we have everyone meet back up there when they’re done? That way we could all exchange what we know…”

“That’s fine. It’ll keep things organized, at the very least.”

“So should we head there now?” Angie wondered with a tilt of her head.

“We can also go help out another group,” Keebo suggested. “The warehouse is one location that will definitely take a significant amount of time to thoroughly sort through…”

“Do that then,” Rantaro said from the doorway. “I’ll be checking with the groups outside.”

Maki watched him go, and couldn’t shake the feeling that Rantaro might have divided them up like this for another reason she couldn’t identify. He certainly didn’t seem terribly interested in their results, seeming to already have either known about or guessed what they would find.

“Mmm, I wonder what mysterious things can be found in the warehouse,” Angie wondered. “If it’s as big as everyone is saying it is, there’s bound to be many secrets~!”

“So you’re in agreement, then?” Keebo confirmed. “And you, Maki?”

She could worry about Rantaro later. For now, she nodded. Back to the warehouse it was.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll try not to make this non-murder investigation drag on for too much longer I promise =,)
> 
> But hey, let me know what you think of my fic, and any theories you come up with! I really love to read them!


	10. Robots and Religion

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The non-murder investigation continues.

The warehouse was every bit as enormous as Maki remembered it to be, with its shelves stretching up all the way to its doubly high ceiling. She had to admit, it was rather incredible. Of course, now that she was aware of the nature of their imprisonment, some of the objects here seemed as though they had more sinister uses. She was sure that a great many items here were being provided only so that they could be used for murder.

“Oh wow~! Atua was right to tell me how much we have here~!” Angie exclaimed as she came in behind Maki with Keebo in tow.

“Ah that’s right, you hadn’t seen the warehouse yet, Angie,” Keebo replied from beside her as the two of them entered the large room.

“Mmm, even Atua’s visions cannot compare to the real thing,” Angie hummed. She continued further into the room to where Maki already was and began to peek into some of the boxes on the shelves. 

Keebo took a moment to collect himself before moving to join them. Despite being able to walk on his own again, he seemed to be going slower than he had before and took frequent pauses.

“You ok?” Maki asked him. “You sure you’re up for this?”

“I’m fine, just a little tired,” He assured her quickly. She raised an eyebrow, skeptically. “I’m really fine!”

She nodded. “Tell me if you change your mind.”

The three people investigating the warehouse weren’t hard to find, being only a row over, sorting through some of the shelves and boxes. Tenko had climbed a few shelves to check some of the higher ones using those below it as a makeshift ladder. Below her and further down the row, Kirumi lightly peered into each box and crate as she walked by. By the other side of the row, Miu stood fiddling with a cheap disposable camera.

“Huh, what are you guys doing here?” Tenko yelled down curiously from where she was standing. Even though she was hardly a quarter of the way up, she was still far above them, making conversation difficult. She grabbed the side of the row with one hand and her hat with the other, carefully sliding her way back down to the ground. “Did something happen?”

Maki shook her head. “We finished early and figured we could help you with,” she made a wide sweeping gesture, “all this.”  
“Oh, sure! Right now we’re just kinda getting a feel for what’s here, you know? Figuring out what we have to work with? There’s just, ah, a lot to go through,” Tenko admitted sheepishly. “But at the very least, we can skim over most of it, right? Most of it just seems like random junk, cheap stuff, haha…”

“Miu was very helpful earlier, as she had already searched through the majority of the warehouse’s other half before the killing game’s announcement,” Kirumi commented primly from were she stood, pausing momentarily to look at those who had arrived.

Miu flushed and sputtered. “I-I mean, I was just-“

“Of course, it would be more helpful if she continued to do so instead of milling about,” Kirumi continued.

“H-hey, fuck you!” Miu yelled indignantly.

“But anyways, you guys can totally help us!” Tenko said cheerily, completely ignoring Miu. It seemed like the best course of action, sometimes. 

They got started in the search, choosing to spread out slightly to cover as much ground as possible, though they remained within speaking distance. The organization of the warehouse seemed ludicrous. While items that were exactly the same did tend to be in the same area or box, similar types of things weren’t always, sometimes being in a completely different row, or spot on it.

“There aren’t any meds, or any fabrics,” Miu grumbled mostly to herself a little too loudly after a while of silently searching. “Not unless I wanna cannibalize some goddamn shower curtains anyways… Or… Ugh, nope not using this either… At least there’s sewing shit…”

“At least a lot of this stuff is cool,” Tenko called out, having apparently heard Miu as well. “Sorry that I can’t use magic to make this go faster, by the way! Most of my, ah, equipment isn’t on me. All I have right now is my hat actually, haha… But hey I found some playing cards! So I can do card tricks if you guys want! Not just that, of course, but I’ll have to look around for some more props that girls would like… hmm…”

“We _should_ be focusing on our task at hand,” Kirumi stated tersely. “You can worry about having fun with your play pretend _later_.”

“Hey, that’s not what magic is!” Tenko defended, but begrudgingly went back to her shelf.

The searching wore on, with only the occasional argument strewn in. Maki found a pair of ladders in the back and considered if she could use them to climb up to the section of the second floor above the entrance hall, but they were the stepladder kind, and she doubted that they would reach that far up.

Something crashed to the ground behind Maki, and she whirled around to see Keebo wincing over a pile of cheap art supplies that were now on the floor.

“A-ah, sorry…”

“Hey Kirumi~,” Angie called out while she peeked at the items on the floor. “You are the Ultimate Artist, yes? You could use these things, right?”

The supplies themselves were just the typical cheap watercolor paint sets, brushes, pencils, and notepads you would find in a preschool, but the at least they were something, in this situation. 

Kirumi disagreed. “Of course not. There’s no way I would ever use supplies as unrefined as that. I hold myself to standards of _quality_. I would hardly have earned my title as an Ultimate if I hadn’t.”

“Seriously? You’re going to be snooty about it when she was just trying to help you?” Tenko asked angrily. “There’s no need to be rude to her!”

“I wasn’t. I was merely stating a brief explanation for why-“

“Then work on your phrasing! Jeeze, for a girl you _really_ don’t get solidarity, do you.”

“That’s a ridiculous-“

“Keebo, are you ok?” Angie interrupted with concern in her voice. Keebo was shaking slightly and leaning against the shelf that the box of supplies had come from. If he had been human, Maki was sure that he would have been wheezing.

“I-I…”

“You look like you’re about to fall over. Are you sure you’re all right, Keebo?” Maki asked bluntly. If he was malfunctioning or about to run out of power, continuing to help to comb through the warehouse didn’t seem to be the greatest idea.

“I-I’m fine,” He frowned. “I _should_ be fine…”

“Do you need me to carry you to the dorms?” From what she remembered of his bio in the Monopad, carrying him should be doable. She was far from weak, after all.

“T-That’s ok!” Keebo assures hastily. “But, um, m-maybe it would be best for me to go to the dorms to r-recharge. I’d certainly hope there’s a, uh, charging facility available there.”

 _I can’t imagine why there wouldn’t be_ , Maki thought to herself as she placed a hand on Keebo’s back to guide him as Angie scooped up the fallen supplies. They bid a still agitated Tenko farewell, eliciting a far more cheery ‘no worries’ in response than what she had given Kirumi. 

“Hey, what did you do earlier that caused this?” Maki asked as they left the warehouse.

Keebo frowned as he walked. “I j-just tried to send an electromagnetic signal to the board in that classroom before. I-it’s not a function I have, exactly, but I f-figured it wouldn’t do too much harm... Ugh, I believe what I’m experiencing now is the biological human’s equivalent of feeling sick to my stomach...”

“Oh? So robots can get sick too? Do you have a virus?” Angie asked curiously. 

_If he does, at least we don’t have to worry about it spreading to us._

“I-I really don’t think so. But still, it’s... very strange how much energy that used, and how it’s... still affecting me this much.” Keebo looked between the two people supporting him, distraught. “It really shouldn’t be... if I thought that this might happen I wouldn’t have tried that in the f-first place.”

That was more than a little worrying. Despite Keebo saying he didn’t have a virus, it was obvious that _something_ unintended was going on with him. Or, actually... “Do you think it’s possible that the people keeping us here did something to you? We have no idea how long we were unconscious.”

Keebo’s eyes went wide. “T-that’s...”

“Mmm would there even be a way to know for certain? Can you tell if someone’s messed with you, Keebo?” Angie wondered.

“I-I don’t have the capacity or clearance to analyze or alter my own program codes in depth... A-as a precaution of course, and to give me a m-more authentic human experience.”

“I see, I see... those who walk along the earth can be only how Atua intended they to be, and that includes you!”

“It... does?” Keebo asked hesitantly. “Your religion would consider robots to be part of you ‘grand scheme’?” 

“Of course! All children of Atua are welcomed in his Kingdom, even the metal ones!” Angie elegantly slipped her body in front of Keebo. Where her hand had been clasped on his back encouragingly, it now had snaked its way to hold his hand out in front of him with her own. “Atua is telling me that your soul is a little strange, but very kind and trustworthy!” 

“Didn’t you say that your island was cut off from outside influence from the mainland? That’s amazing that you would accept me so quickly...” Keebo said, clearly impressed. “If you don’t mind me asking, what about me would make you so sure I had a soul? N-not that I’m saying I don’t, I just...”

_Looking for validation, huh?_

“Why wouldn’t you? Just by talking to you, I can see that you have a pure heart, full of emotion,” Angie nodded seriously and moved her hand over Keebo’s chest. Her expression was intense. “Atua knows all things, and has taught me to sense these things in people as well.”

“T-thank you, very much,” Keebo managed to reply. He looked touched.

“Do you usually get a more negative reaction?” Maki asked, directing her question at Keebo. 

“Not... always,” Keebo admitted slowly in an effort not to trip over his words. “A lot of the time, I do experience at least some level of robophobia, tending towards the minor side, but... Yes, some of the cultures I’ve visited as an anthropologist have been... less than friendly towards the idea. I’ve had to disguise my status as a robot before… But of course, I’m far from ashamed of what I am!”

That made an amount of sense. Considering how many other types of discrimination plagued the world over any and all differences, it wasn’t surprising that being a robot might elicit a similar response.

“U-um! But anyways… I have no way of knowing if I’ve been tampered with or not,” Keebo quickly changed the subject. “And I am, well, i-incredibly complex, so it would be h-hard for anyone to mess with me in the first place…”

“We could ask Tsumugi to take a look at you if you want?” Maki offered. “If anyone could it’d be her. She is the Ultimate Inventor after all.”

Keebo frowned as he thought. “Maybe I will, if it persists. F-for now, I believe that just recharging should be enough.”

“If you’re sure.”

They reached the dorms, curiously without seeing anyone on the way. Maki half expected Kokichi’s group to be inside, with him causing as much havoc as he had prior, but it was seemingly empty. She supposed that they could be inside of one of the rooms or checking somewhere else at the moment.

Maki left Keebo momentarily to go try to open his door. They’d need to know now whether or not they’d need to locate Kokichi again. She pulled on the handle, and-

“Rise and shine, ursine!”

Before she could test the door, one of the colorful bears from earlier appeared alone. It was a pink one, sporting a black tiger stripe pattern and a pair of small round glasses. It pushed them up nervously and spoke in an accented voice. “I’m afraid you ain’t allowed to be openin’ that.”

Maki stopped and took her hand off the door’s handle. “And why not?”

“Hey, ya’know, even with the doors unlocked now, only the room’s occupant is meant to be, ah, the one getting’ into it, see?” It explained. “We were busy earlier, _still are actually_ , with all of youse runnin’ around separately, so we didn’t stop ya before, but…”

Maki frowned. “Going into someone else’s room isn’t listed as against the rules, though.”

It seemed a bit nervous. “Not what I meant! U-um, see, the thing is that we don’t want anyone snaggin’ each other’s keys before the, uh, intended recipient get’s a chance to take ‘em, yeah? So…”

“Then this shouldn’t be an issue, we’re just taking Keebo to his room.” She didn’t have time for this. Without offering any type of parting, Maki turned around and marched back to wear Keebo was leaning against the railing of the stairs.

“What did he say?” asked Angie once Maki reached them. “Is there a problem?”

“It’s nothing,” Maki said flatly. “Come on, Keebo needs to open his own room.”

“Ah… ok!” Keebo hefted himself back up, staggering for a moment while Angie supported him. Slowly, they made their way past the half-pink Monokub and back to Keebo’s dorm room, where he struggled with the handle for a moment before pulling it open. The inside was much the same as what she’d seen of Shuichi’s, though the layout of the furniture seemed slightly different. 

“Keebo do you… sleep?” Maki asked, eyeing the bed Keebo lowered himself on.

“Not in the traditional sense, no, but I do go into a state somewhat like it while recharging, in the sense that I am unable to respond, but different in that I am still conscious. Laying down is still beneficial because of this fact, so I don’t um, fall over and damage myself or anything around me.”

Maki nodded. Now that she looked closer, actually, she could see a thin mechanical appliance on one of the sides of the bed, possibly for that very function.

“Hey, before you start, then, how long do you think you’ll need to stay here?” Maki asked. “Should we be staying with you?”

Keebo thought about it for a moment. “Ah, I don’t need to fully recharge, but maybe an hour or two to be safe since I don’t want something like this to happen again… And I shouldn’t be keeping you here…”

“Why don’t I stay with you then?” Angie volunteered. “You must be lonely, right? Even if I can’t during the nighttime, I can keep you company now at the very least~!”

“You really don’t have to,” Keebo protested. “I’m used to it by now… And I don’t need to recharge very often anyways. It won’t kill me to be alone for a bit…”

“But you’re scared and confused right now, right?” The sincerity in Angie’s voice was obvious. “Suddenly thrust into a place like this, and told to do these awful things, anyone would be saddened by it, right?”

“Well…”

“So there’s no need to be afraid if I’m here with you! Maki can go to the meeting in the gym and give our report, and I can stay here,” Angie nodded confidently, as if it had already been decided. “I can talk to you and tell you miraculous stories to pass the time, even if you cannot respond. Atua insists!”

Keebo looked bewildered and turned to Maki for permission.

“That’s fine,” Maki replied. “I’ll need to find the other groups outside to pass on that we’re meeting back up in the gym, anyways.”

“But… will _you_ be ok by yourself, Maki?” Keebo asked.

“I can handle myself,” she replied. “Plus Rantaro should be the only other person out alone right now. I’ll be fine.”

“I suppose, though that’s not entirely what I meant.”

Maki bid then farewell and stepped out of the room, letting it shut quietly behind her. She already knew what Keebo had meant, before, but she didn’t bother to explain it. Even if she had spent her life with her foster siblings until recently, with her training team, with her instructors at the space-japan facility…

She couldn’t help but feel like she’d always been alone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh, I wonder what's going on~!
> 
> So hey, how are you liking my characterizations so far? Is the pacing ok? Remember to leave a comment with thoughts and theoriesssss
> 
> And if you want to get that sweet email notification when I update, remember to subscribe lol


	11. Going up, Going down

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay on this chapter!

The dorm building was silent, and Maki had to wonder whether it would even be possible for Kokichi, Shuichi, and Gonta to be here. The three of them were tasked with checking the upper area of the outdoor portion of the academy. She hadn’t seen them at all on her way over here with Keebo and Angie, but then again she hadn’t left the main path to search that thoroughly. It was possible that they had just missed each other.

If they _were_ in the dorm building, however, the only room they would likely be in was Gonta’s, since the Monokubs were apparently keeping watch now for people opening rooms that didn’t belong to them, now that they were unlocked and their keys free for the taking inside. It seemed odd to her that they didn’t account for Kokichi’s ability to do exactly that earlier, and had to wonder just what they were preoccupied with. Either way, they had already searched Shuichi’s room before, and Kokichi had presumably already investigated his own as well, so the only one left among them that would be opening up their own room was Gonta. 

To be certain, she walked to where Gonta’s room was on the boy’s side of the dorms and knocked. She waited for a few moments before knocking again, but there still wasn’t any answer. She walked to Rantaro’s room next, figuring that it might also be possible that he had come here to open it for them, no matter how unlikely, but there wasn’t a response there either. She didn’t feel too disappointed.

Maki glanced across the room at where he own door was but shook her head. She’d have time for that later. Finding the two groups outside to pass on that they would be meeting back up in the gym was more important at the moment. Instead, she left the building.

She checked the available paths around the upper courtyard, but no dice. _They’re probably behind something…_ she thought to herself. _That, or there’s another building we can get into somewhere._

There were loads of rubble stacked around in various spots, blocking access to some paths or areas for the moment, but she also took note of an Exisal lifting some of it in a section blocked by a railing. Maki decided to come back later. For now, the lower area seemed easier to navigate. It was wide open, and although there were still plenty of trees and occasional miscellaneous objects, altogether it didn’t seem quite as enormous an area. But maybe that was her mind playing tricks on her because of it being less cluttered.

Unlike Kokichi, Shuichi, and Gonta’s group, the group investigating the lower portion wasn’t difficult to find at all. They were off the path and in the lightly forested area close to a portion of the outer wall that trapped them in this cage. Kaito was holding some sort of cable, Tsumugi was wringing her hands nervously over her frilly pink knee-length skirt, and Himiko was sitting in a low-hanging branch on a nearby tree. Maki called out to them and waved as she approached. 

“Oh, hey Maki!” Kaito yelled excitedly as he took a break from whatever it was he was messing with. Maki noticed Tsumugi wince at the volume. “How come you’re here?”

“Can I ask, uh, where’s, um Angie and Keebo?” Tsumugi added in a more reasonable volume level. “They were in your group, right?”

“We finished early, and I’m just here to tell you that we’re meeting back up at the gym once we’re done,” Maki replied as she reached them. “Keebo wasn’t feeling well, so he and Angie are in his dorm room.”

“Nyeh, isn’t he a robot, though,” Himiko mumbled from her tree. “Is he gonna go haywire? I always knew the robot uprising would happen one day…”

“It seems more like a problem with his energy levels. He was getting tired faster than he should after trying to check something during our investigation,” Maki assured. “He said he was fine, but we thought it best for him to recharge just in case.”

“Is he really alright? In a piece of technology as complex as Keebo, any kind of malfunction could be significant, no matter how minor it seems,” asked Tsumugi worriedly.

“He said that it wouldn’t be a concern unless it kept happening,” Maki shrugged. “But you could always take a look at him yourself.”

“M-maybe… I’m not familiar with his technology, and I don’t really have the tools to work on anything right now anyways, but, um… That building over there,” She pointed a building that Maki hadn’t noticed before. She could just barely see through the trees from where she stood. “Um, a Monokub appeared and told us that it was the Ultimate Inventor’s Research Lab, that is to say, um, my lab, so… Ahhh, it’s not opened yet, but it probably will be soon!”

Maki nodded in understanding. That was interesting, though. While Shuichi’s unopened lab seemed to be a classroom, Tsumugi’s was an entire building. From what Maki could see of it, it looked almost like a small factory. Hopefully they’d have access to it soon. It seemed like it would be extremely helpful to them. For now, it seemed they’d have to wait.

“What were you trying to do before, anyway?”

Kaito grinned and lifted up what he was holding. It was a long cord that he seemed to be in the process of unwrapping, presumably taken from his backpack that was now on the ground by his feet. On the end of the cord, there was…

“Is that a grappling hook?”

Kaito’s grin widened. “Sure is!”

“Was something like that really in the warehouse?” It seemed possible, but she definitely hadn’t seen anything like it.

“Nah, I already had it with me! Gotta be prepared to explore at all times, y’know?”

 _Huh._ Well that was interesting. Maki wondered what else he had in there. “So… what are you going do with it?”

He struck a dramatic pose and gestured behind himself. “Climb this big-ass wall, obviously! If I can get out of here and get help, or hoist all of you guys up, then we can escape this stupid game!”

Maki’s eyes widened. She turned her gaze upwards to the towering barrier standing between them and their freedom. It was… _incredibly_ high. The top of it wasn’t equal all the way around, instead having some sections that rose higher or lower than the rest, seeming to imitate a cityscape. But even the lowest portions of the wall were comparable to skyscrapers themselves, or so it seemed from here, anyways. Was it really possible to climb something like that? And if he did get to the top, would he really be free? The bars of the cage itself were certainly spaced wide enough apart that a person could easily get through but… Would it really be that easy? Where was this cage _built_ , anyways?

“Hey, I can see the doubt on both your faces! You two don’t think I can do it, huh?” Kaito exclaimed looking between Maki and Tsumugi. Apparently, their concerns were clearly shown on both their faces.

“Nyeh, don’t forget about me. I don’t believe in you either,” Himiko piped up unhelpfully.

“Harsh!” Kaito whined with a wounded expression. “Well, whatever you say, I’m still gonna do it! I’m not a newbie when it comes to rock climbing, y’know.”

But it seemed it was not meant to be. No matter how many times Kaito threw the grapple up, trying various ways to give it enough momentum, it failed to reach anywhere near the top of the wall, and also didn’t seem to be able to hook on to anything else even part of the way up. The wall wasn’t perfectly smooth, no, but the various nicks and rough edges jutting out of the black and grey wall weren’t deep enough to allow the grapple to get a solid foundation. 

“I guess it wasn’t meant to be after all,” noted Himiko, sounding disinterested.

“Heh, I’m not giving up just yet!” Kaito began coiling the grapple back up and set it back into a pouch on the side of his bag. “If throwing it won’t work, I’ll just do it by hand.”

Before any of them could say anything, Kaito slung his backpack over one of his shoulders and approached the wall. He ran a hand down it experimentally, getting a feel for the groves, and have it a few experimental knocks. “Yeah, this should work. ‘Doubt I’ll be able to stick any anchors in it without, like, a drill or something though. Too hard for that.”

“W-wait, you’re going to climb it by hand…?” Tsumugi asked nervously. “I mean, can you even do something like that? It looks way too steep!”

Maki had to agree; this wasn’t like some sort of climbing wall at a training facility. Sure, it wasn’t perfectly smooth, but the only ‘support’ a person would have to climb on was barely there at all, the biggest she could see barely coming an inch out from the wall. Even then, most of them were slopped and smoothed out. Would it even be possible to get enough friction? In addition, the further the wall you went, the more of an incline there was. It wasn’t that noticeable at first, but by the time you’d get near the top of the wall, it would be clearly curving inward along with the shape of the enormous cage. And then there was the matter of trying it _without safety gear._

“Kaito, don’t be an idiot. Even if you could get part of the way up, you’d just be putting yourself at more of a risk of falling and cracking your skull open,” Maki warned. _That would the absolute dumbest way to start off this stupid killing game_ , she didn’t say. 

“Aw, where’s your sense of adventure! You’ve gotta take some risks sometimes to make your dreams a reality,” Kaito insisted as he began feeling around for a good starting spot. He glanced up at what path lay before him. 

“There’s no way it’s gonna work for a boring human,” Himiko mumbled distractedly. Maki turned to see her poking at the trunk of the tree she sat in with a stick, not bothering to even look at what Kaito would be attempting. “Only crawly bugs can climb like that…”

“Please reconsider, Kaito?” Tsumugi pleaded. “There’s got to be some safer way for us to try this…”

“Seriously, guys, it’s _fine_ , I do stuff like this all the time! I’m not called the Ultimate Adventurer for nothing. I’m, like, the greatest explorer this world has _ever seen_.” With a final grin, Kaito turned back to the wall and positioned his right leg on a slightly jutted out diagonal slop, with the force of his leg pressing sideways instead of up. He took a sharp breath and kicked off the ground, his arm reaching high above him to grab onto the slightest divot, having traveled a good few feet upwards in a single take. And he only kept going from there. “See? Easy!”

Just as he said that, however, his foot slipped, and he dangled in the air above them. Tsumugi gasped, but Kaito hung there for only a moment before he continued.

In less than a minute, he’d traveled a substantial distance up the wall, now far above their heads. One after another, he placed a leg, kicked off, and grabbed onto new sections. It was… _astonishing_ , watching Kaito climb. He seemed to be able to stand on ledged that Maki was pretty sure didn’t actually exist.

“Nyeh, maybe he _is_ a bug…” Himiko said in a surprisingly interested tone, and this time when Maki turned to look at her she saw that she had stopped whatever it was she was doing to the tree and was staring upwards at Kaito with a look of wonder. “Like a really big one in disguise…”

Maki couldn’t stop a small smile from forming. “He looks like more of a mountain goat to me.”

“Oh, I can see that!” Tsumugi giggled, finally letting the tension out of her shoulders a bit. “He’s even got the goatee and everything!”

“I heard that!” Kaito called down. He grunted a bit from the exertion. “And my goatee is awesome!”

It was surprising to Maki how far Kaito had managed to get, being nearly half of the way to the top. As Kaito continued, however, he started slowing down. The incline of the wall had started becoming more noticeable, and Kaito himself seemed to be getting tired. Even from her position far below him, Maki could see his legs starting to shake, and his chest heaving harder than it had before. By the third time he nearly slipped, Maki was certain that this wasn’t going to work.

“K-Kaito! You should come back down before it get’s too hard to!” Tsumugi shouted up, apparently thinking the same thing. It was unclear whether Kaito could still hear them, because he didn’t respond. Still, a moment later he paused in his ascent.

“I-I think I’ll come back down for now!” He yelled down to them and started carefully placing his limbs back into the somewhat secure positions they’d been in before on his way back down. The decent was slower, _and Maki could have sworn shakier_ , but in the end he made it back safely, after only a few close calls. 

Tsumugi shakily let out the breath she had been holding. “Jeez, that was just plain scary… Thank god you’re alright!”

Kaito didn’t respond, instead he hunched over with his hands on his knees and took some deep shuttering breaths.

“Kaito…? Are you ok…?” Tsumugi moved to check on him, but Kaito waved her away with a cough.

“Y-yeah, I’m fine,” he managed to at last. He coughed a few times before continuing. “Sorry, I dunno what happened there. I wasn’t climbing as well as I normally do. Guess it’s just because I’m so-ACK, so sore. If I get some rest, I knock I can get all the way up there.”

“Even if it’s just soreness, that was _really_ dangerous,” Tsumugi insisted in a surprisingly determined tone. “You shouldn’t be trying to do something that could get you k-killed…”

Kaito stayed silent in thought for a moment. “I’ll… yeah, that was a little stupid, huh? Probably should’ve gone about it differently. Sorry for worrying you guys, but… But that doesn’t mean I’m gonna give up on this.”

Tsumugi sighed, but didn’t sound too put out. “Just, promise me you won’t try again until you’ve rested _and_ have equipment to use? I-if you can’t find anything good enough, I wouldn’t mind making something for you once my research lab opens…”

“I… yeah, I can promise that. Thanks, Tsumugi,” Kaito said. He smiled a bit, in a much more subdued way than his boisterous ones earlier. Maki thought it might have been a bit more genuine.

“Hey, why can’t I see any bugs?” Himiko spoke up suddenly. Tsumugi and Kaito both blinked at the sudden change in topic. Himiko was glaring at the air around her, annoyed. “Just now, I thought I felt some, but… Nyeh… I can’t find any…”

“Are you sure you, um, felt some? Did they brush up against you?” Tsumugi asked. She placed a finger to the side of her glasses and glanced around. “I don’t see anything either…” 

“Nyeeeeeh, I know I felt… something small, and buggy… And not _felt_ felt… Nyeh, I can sense these things… Oh well.” Himiko seemed to give up. She carefully climbed down from the tree and back onto the ground with them. “Are we done now? It’s getting later… I’m hungry.”

Kaito barked out a laugh. “Yeah me too! Ok, after we search one last thing, we’ll go back, ok? If the other groups aren’t done yet, then we can stop by the dining hall first.”

“One last thing… That caged garden, right? It’s labeled the ‘Shrine of Judgment’ on the Monopad’s map,” Tsumugi noted. “What about you, Maki? Are you going to come with us?”

 _Ah_. She’d been so caught up in Kaito’s climbing escapade that she’d forgotten that this wasn’t the last group she needed to find. “No, I should go try to track down Kokichi’s group. I still haven’t found them yet.”

Tsumugi bowed a little at the waist. “I wish you luck.”

Maki left them to investigate the garden area and made her way back up the stairs. Once again, she didn’t see them anywhere immediately on any of the paths or the overgrown areas between them. There was a large door on a wall that was quite thoroughly stopped from opening by a long metal object. There didn’t seem to be anything to open it with, although there was an odd hexagonal protrusion that she couldn’t figure out. _Not here then_. Was it possible that they’d already gone inside the school building and she had missed them? Well, if she couldn’t find them soon she’d go in and check. She could afford a bit more searching first.

The next thing she decided to try was walking back behind the school, which she hadn’t tried previously. She could have sworn the route had been blocked by rubble before. It probably had to do with an Exisal, she decided. She passed by the outer patio outside of what she presumed would be the dining hall.

Surprisingly, she didn’t have to search more than that.

“Ughhh, what a waste of time,” came a familiar whine. Before her, Shuichi, Kokichi, and Gonta all were walking towards her, looking surprisingly worse for wear. Kokichi was dragging his feet. “Even for me, it was impossible… Damn you Rantaroooo…!”

“What was?” Maki asked curiously. _And why do they look so beat up?_

“Oh, Maki…” Shuichi blinked, seeming to just now realize that she was there. “Um… we found… _something_ in the boiler room back there,” he pointed to where they had just come, “But it turned out to be a trap…”

“Gonta thought it was exit, down in the manhole. There was a sign and everything, but even Gonta and Kokichi couldn’t make it…”

“Hold on, what are you talking about?” Maki glanced between them suspiciously. “Why are your clothes so sooty.”

Gonta glanced nervously between the other two. Kokichi stuck out his tongue.

“We’ll talk about it more with everyone else,” came a sudden voice from behind the three boys. Gonta jumped and moved out of the way to reveal Rantaro walking up behind them, looking a bit annoyed. He stalked by them. “There’s no reason to explain twice, come on.”

“Jeeeez, someone’s moody,” Kokichi teased as he saddled up to Rantaro. “Say, how come you put all of us in a group, huh? Was it _really_ just coincidence?”

Rantaro frowned and kept walking, now with the rest of them trailing behind him. “I picked the groups randomly, you all saw me count you off. I couldn’t control where you were standing.” 

“Hmm but I’m _pretty_ sure you passed over Kirumi to choose me, right? And that’s got to be because…” Kokichi’s voice was playful but serious, and he trailed off dramatically… before abruptly turning it into a cheer. “We’re all wearing the same color!”

Rantaro’s steps stuttered, and Maki imagined there might be a look of surprise on his face. The sudden shift in Kokichi’s tone right back to cheerful was jarring. 

“See, we’re all wearing white and black~!” Kokichi sing-songed happily. “Isn’t that suspicious? You had to have planned it!”

Rantaro hmm’d casually. “I can’t say that I did that on purpose. It’s just how it worked out.” 

“Oh, but wearing mostly white is dangerous, you know! The stains really leave me dead. Shumai’s lucky that he doesn’t have to worry about that!” 

“S-Shumai…?” Shuichi sputtered.

“But that’s a lie, at least in regards to me,” Kokichi grinned. “This jacket’s _totally_ great when it comes to cleaning. It’ll be super easy to get your blood out when you die in my arms~! Can’t say the same for Gonta’s suit though!”

“W-wait, who’s dying here?” Gonta asked uneasily. 

“Just ignore him,” Maki found herself saying. This wasn’t what was important. Shuichi looked over at her and slowed his pace. Maki did similarly. Speaking only to Shuichi, she said, “So are you going to tell me what happened?”

“Ah, that’s…” He looked like he was thinking for a moment about whether or not to tell her. He ended up nodding, perhaps to himself, and spoke again. “Rantaro came to us while we were searching the grounds and had us come back here to the boiler room. Apparently, he climbed a railing before when he ditched us and found that place, even though the path was blocked by rubble.”

“He approached you guys for that?”

“Yeah, ah, I think that’s because the door’s to the boiler room were locked,” Shuichi continued. “I ended up telling him earlier about how Kokichi got us into my room when it had been locked, so that might be why Kokichi was talking about rigging the groups… But I don’t know about that. He probably just would have suggested that whatever group Kokichi was on would investigate the upper outside area.”

Maki nodded. That made sense. “And what was inside?”

“Well, um, apart from normal sort of, uh, boiler room things, there was a manhole in the ground. We didn’t think much of it at first, but Gonta ended up lifting it, and there was a tunnel down there. We thought it might be a way to escape, but, um…” Shuichi shifted under Maki’s gaze. He lowered his voice to a whisper. “Well, this is the part we’ll be telling everyone anyways. Long story short, I told them that I think it’s just a trap, and that it’s not a real exit after all. There were a whole lot of traps down there, which make it _seem_ like they’re guarding a real exit but… It’s not worth it. I don’t want anyone getting hurt. A lot of the stuff there’s really dangerous. Not even Gonta could get through it, you know?”

So that was why they all looked to beat up. How long were they down there? How many times had they tried to get passed them? It was getting darker now, the shadows stretching out to cover the ground. 

“Are you guys alright?” Maki glanced over him once more. There were more than a few fraying ends on his sweater vest. They looked… crispy.

“Yeah, I think so… We might have a few bruises now, but thankfully nothing worse.” Shuichi sighed. “I’m gonna go catch up to them. Don’t tell them I told you this?” 

“Sure.”

“Um, thanks,” Shuichi gave her a small smile before scurrying back to his group. 

Maki hadn’t realized that the two of them had actually stopped walking, but now here she was standing alone in front of the school with the dimming light of evening. What time did that make this, then? She didn’t know, and she didn’t feel like bothering to take out her Monopad to check. It didn’t really matter right now.

She was startled by her thoughts by the sound of dragging feet and sneezing. She turned towards the dorms to see a very wet Kaito hugging his (still dry) jacket around himself like a blanket instead of wearing it like he was before. He sneezed and coughed again. Tsumugi and Himiko followed closely behind him.

Maki raise an eyebrow. “What happened to you?” 

“Ahh, while we were checking out the garden shrine, Kaito, um, had the idea to search behind the waterfall, so..,” Tsumugi trialed off. “He did.”

“Nyeh, he just dove right in without a care in the world… At least he took his jacket of first.”

“Hey, it was a great idea, there’s totally something back there!” the soaking wet Kaito complained. “Ugh, I wish I had a longer jacket, though. This one doesn’t really make a good towel…”

“We’re, um, just gonna grab him a change of clothes. There are those in the dorms, right?”

Maki nodded.

“M-meet you in the gym!” Tsumugi called out as she guided Himiko and Kaito into the dormitory.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So there's some interesting tidbits for you! Now you've seen all the groups~! =)
> 
> I'm so curious about what you all think! I want to know your opinions~!
> 
> I'll try not to take a full week to update again haha, It should be quicker than that in the future. I just had some college stuff going on!


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